AROUND the NBA:

[FireNicoHarrison]

Silver is one of the worst commissioner in NBA history. He is a joke.

[cow]

CP3 released and retired.

[Chicagojk]

All star break came at a good time.   I need a break.    The all star game doesn't interest me much so I will probably skip that too.    It is looking like the rest of the season will be a drag.   Mavs were in most games (and losing most), the last two have been ugly.  More of those games may be coming too.

[RasheedsBigWhiteSpot]

I think some of you are missing the biggest issue associated with "tanking". The NBA didn't just put their toe in the gambling world, Adam Silver shiny noggin jumped in head first into the world of sharks. MILLIONS are legally wagered every half, every quarter and every second of every game. You think, in this world of prop bets, the Johntay Porters of the world is the worst version of screwing with the integrity of the league? Watch how condoning teams or coaches screwing around with lineups midgame does for the league's image. You can't, on one hand, have gambling ads plastered all over the court and in every commercial break and at the same time have people wondering whether a team is truly giving max effort in every way.

Yes, this has a lot to do with the Lottery. But Silver has put himself in the crosshairs by making gambling intertwined with the league's image. This is a dangerous slippery slope. If a team gets caught up in a gambling scandal, Silver would find himself testifying before Congress, especially if he never showed a history of trying to address it. Yep, a big part of this is the Draft. But there's a whooooooole other angle that could destroy the league.

[OBX Maverick]

Do NBA athletes waive doctor/patient confidentiality, when they sign their contracts? At least here an employer does not even have any legal rights to know the illness/injury of an employee, so how can the league verify the validity of an injury.  So you´d basically rely on the players telling on their teams to actually prove tanking. You really want to be known as a player that snitches on their own team, when the next max contract negotiation comes up?

That´s why they do these lame fines, that nobody will bother to challenge. It´s all about saving face. The Jazz paid Dybantsa 7M to play at BYU. You really think they care about this fine?

I think there is “overt” tanking (as Silver likes to put it) which is obvious to the point where one doesn’t need to see a doctor’s physical exam to figure out what’s going on. However, most tanking is more subtle and difficult to prove. (Ie, who’s to say Kyrie isn’t ready to come back right now? I bet if the Mavs were 20 games over .500 we would be counting the days until his return.)

[HoosierDaddyKid]

https://x.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/202247...56193?s=20


Per Chris Haynes, Zach LaVine is to undergo season-ending hand surgery.

[Dahlsim]

I think some of you are missing the biggest issue associated with "tanking".  The NBA didn't just put their toe in the gambling world, Adam Silver shiny noggin jumped in head first into the world of sharks. MILLIONS are legally wagered every half, every quarter and every second of every game. You think, in this world of prop bets, the Johntay Porters of the world is the worst version of screwing with the integrity of the league?  Watch how condoning teams or coaches screwing around with lineups midgame does for the league's image. You can't, on one hand, have gambling ads plastered all over the court and in every commercial break and at the same time have people wondering whether a team is truly giving max effort in every way.

Yes, this has a lot to do with the Lottery. But Silver has put himself in the crosshairs by making gambling intertwined with the league's image. This is a dangerous slippery slope. If a team gets caught up in a gambling scandal, Silver would find himself testifying before Congress, especially if he never showed a history of trying to address it.  Yep, a big part of this is the Draft. But there's a whooooooole other angle that could destroy the league.

Great catch and nod to the historical connection here.  Changing of the NBA guard from Stern to Silver was historically a major part of the move to the open legalized sports gambling world of today in the USA.  Adam Silver played a role well before the Supreme Court made the dramatic shift ruling in on May 14, 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision in Murphy v. NCAA, struck down PASPA as unconstitutional, ruling that sports betting was a state issue.

Leading up to that, in 2014, Silver published his op-ed in The New York Times titled "Legalize and Regulate Sports Betting,".  

By contrast, Commissioner David Stern testified before Congress in 1991 against expanding sports betting, warning of potential corruption. Along with the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NCAA, the NBA actively fought legalization efforts.  

Today we have the 2025 scandals and federal indictments of players like Terry Rozier, coach Chauncey Billups, and former player Damon Jones with illegal betting schemes tied to organized crime. Truth is many of us understand this is just the part of the cheating iceberg that surfaced to visibility for a moment. 

The draft/tanking issue is relatively small if "integrity of the game" is the real concern. 
For the record, the current system for distributing the odds might be about as good as it's going to get compared to every prior system I've seen or any of the proposed ideas.  In an exceptionally promising projected draft year like this one, tanking is unavoidable.  Its almost hysterically revealing that Adam Silver says openly that his concern is about how overtly the tanking is executed.  Covertly then, not a problem.  Good stuff from the champion of legalized pro sports gambling. 

Changing the lottery rules again?  Window dressing while gambling is the elephant in the integrity room.  The only thing any NBA draft system can do is change how many tanking teams you have, how overt the tanking might become and how soon the tanking begins.

[RasheedsBigWhiteSpot]

Dumb: Being a sports entertainment business and taking the lone redeemable part and COMPLETELY making it impossible for your audience to watch.

3 Point Contest???

New network CHECK
New order of events CHECK
New start time CHECK

Whose idea was to put the lone interesting thing about All Star Weekend, the 3 Point Contest, as the first event on Peacock at 4 in the afternoon???!!!???

So. Dumb.

Edit: Even ESPN has the event starting at 6pm EST.

[mvossman]

the current system for distributing the odds might be about as good as it's going to get compared to every prior system I've seen or any of the proposed ideas.  In an exceptionally promising projected draft year like this one, tanking is unavoidable.  Its almost hysterically revealing that Adam Silver says openly that his concern is about how overtly the tanking is executed.  Covertly then, not a problem.  Good stuff from the champion of legalized pro sports gambling. 

Changing the lottery rules again?  Window dressing while gambling is the elephant in the integrity room.  The only thing any NBA draft system can do is change how many tanking teams you have, how overt the tanking might become and how soon the tanking begins.

I don't think this is true.  You could simply make the entire first round a lottery with flattened odds.  It won't reward crappy organizations as much as it used to, but now that the aprons are so punishing (making it much closer to a true salary cap) the smaller franchises don't need as much help.  Very little reason to tank in that scenario.

On a separate note, I think the play-in is stupid.  Half the league was already making the playoffs.

[windjc]

If one doesn’t like gambling one doesn’t like Silver. But Stein was a dictator and did whatever he wanted and very little to make the game more commercial.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2026/02...ime-video/


Who says nobody is watching NBA games?

[Mavs2021]

KD is such a mess. I always said he was a horrible leader, but he´s also very dumb apparently. How can you always have people trace multiple anonymous accounts back to you.

The idea that he´s a top 20 player of all-time, let alone top 10 is nuts to me. If you gave MJ his career rosters he safely wins double digit championships. The guy is a glorified Karl Malone. 20 to 30 is a fair assessment of his career.

That he thinks he´s the best player on the Rockets, and not Sengun. Guess KD is available for a trade now.

[omahen]

I have to tip my head to NBA as they managed to make the all star game(s) interesting again. I think the short format of 15 minutes per game really helped and we could watch some pretty decent basketball of best players in the world.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

KD is such a mess. I always said he was a horrible leader, but he´s also very dumb apparently. How can you always have people trace multiple anonymous accounts back to you.

The idea that he´s a top 20 player of all-time, let alone top 10 is nuts to me. If you gave MJ his career rosters he safely wins double digit championships. The guy is a glorified Karl Malone. 20 to 30 is a fair assessment of his career.

That he thinks he´s the best player on the Rockets, and not Sengun. Guess KD is available for a trade now.

If you don't mind me asking, what is this all about?

[HoosierDaddyKid]

I have to tip my head to NBA as they managed to make the all star game(s) interesting again. I think the short format of 15 minutes per game really helped and we could watch some pretty decent basketball of best players in the world.

I agree. The format is good, and it was entertaining. Kawhi Leonard was blazing, scoring 31 of his team's 48 points in 12 minutes. But they ran out of gas vs the young guns.

[SkenfromLMF]

Dumb: Being a sports entertainment business and taking the lone redeemable part and COMPLETELY making it impossible for your audience to watch.

3 Point Contest???

New network CHECK
New order of events CHECK
New start time CHECK

Whose idea was to put the lone interesting thing about All Star Weekend, the 3 Point Contest, as the first event on Peacock at 4 in the afternoon???!!!???

So. Dumb.

Edit: Even ESPN has the event starting at 6pm EST.

Peacock made that decision in order to have the NBA Saturday "night" programming not compete with the Prime Time Olympic programming. Not sure I agree with either move, but that is the impetus.


My recommendation on the All-Star Weekend is to create 4 All-Star Teams and play 2 games on Saturday with Skills Competition taking place between them. 20 Minute halves.
Play a 3rd game between the winners from Saturday with the 3 pt Shootout taking place before the game on Sunday
Recommendations for the teams:
Canada - roster may include Canadian citizens and players who play or have played for Toronto
World - Players who eligible to play for teams outside of the US/Canada in the Olympics
Western Conference - US Players who play for teams in the Western Conference
Eastern Conference - US players from the Eastern Conference teams

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

If you don't mind me asking, what is this all about?

There was a release/leak of IG messages from what is supposed to be one of his (KD) burner accounts talking to his friends...

1. where he calls Devin Booker and Frank Vogel  "Stalin and Hitler".  "The Suns are my team when we lose and Books team when we win."

2.  talking about Sengun: "Your franchise player can't shoot or defend."  
     talking about Jabari Smith:  "I can't trust Jabari to make a fu**** shot or get a stop.  He's lowkey retarded."

3. talking about James Harden: "I miss James man. That's a good nigga. Slightly delusional but I understand him."

and a bunch of other stuff.

No one has really confirmed or denied if it was really him.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

https://www.reddit.com/r/rockets/comment...hat_leaks/

[ThisIStheYear]

What about having a designated portion of cap that is specific to drafting new players that starts off equal between all teams. Each team bids an amount to acquire a draftee and the highest amount gets the player. You can spend it all to get a really great prospect or split it between other players.

But for trades, instead of trading picks you trade amounts of this special cap space, so you give another team a certain amount of space that they can then use (and thus have more to offer draftees than other teams).

Seems like this would reward skilled front offices, removes any tie to record determining draft placement, and doesn't affect small/big markets differently. Rebuilding teams can acquire this space to get young players but without depending on lottery luck.

I kind of like this idea, with a few tweaks you may or may not like. You should have tiers in terms of money a franchise can spend. It could be connected to position vis a vie the aprons. That means the best teams probably won’t be able to get in on the action for the top rookies. All bidding is blind, so players are awarded to the highest bidder.  Bids must exceed a minimum level calculated based on current rookie scale. The contract from the bid is guaranteed, per current rules.  You’d need some kind of strategic system for rounds and hierarchy of bidding and tiebreakers that create drama, with results announced in a compact 2 hour TV special, like a draft show. Some aspects of the process should be live, for a better entertainment product.  Maybe like a reverse shark tank\college recruiting  with teams in a tie making their pitch for a player and the player selects the winning team’s hat!

[SwisherPrice]

Kevin Durant is just too weird. Between, him, Westbrook, and Harden they all have their issues but when all is said and done...gimme Harden over the others!