NBA fans, welcome to tanking season

Now it starts. It is NBA All-Star weekend as I write this, and some inferior teams have their focus on losing enough games to "earn" a high lottery pick.

Danny Ainge, never one to previously tank as Head Honcho of the Boston Celtics, and his Utah Jazz took a half-million-dollar hit for failing to play his stars in the final period of two close games. Unnecessarily resting star players has been a major issue in the League this season, and Adam Silver has decided to make teams pay for such a practice.

Silver stated that such behavior "undermines the foundation of NBA compeition". That may be so, but what may eventually be undermined might be the popularity of the League itself - and the massive amount of money it acquires.

The blatent "losing to gain a high draft position" needs to stop, but large fines are hardly felt by the offending teams. Resting star players to avoid injuries is one thing, but benching them after overstating the seriousness of maladies is yet another (per Yahoo Sports):

"The fines represent the NBA taking a stance against tanking, though the teams might just see them as the cost of doing business."

At least one source has placed the NBA's net worth in excess of $130 billion. The League is clealy "big business". Player salaries are off the charts. No chance that the League reduces the number of regular season games since that would supposedly cut the League earnings.

The upcoming draft class appears to be a good one. Stay tuned to see what actions are taken against the "overt tankers" by Silver - and what changes may take place concerning the way teams draft positions are determined.

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