$750,000 fine for openly tanking

Under investigation by the NBA following voluntarily dropping their end of the season, the Mavericks have just been sanctioned by the Big League. We warn, the addition is salty.

$750,000 fine.

This is what the NBA decided to inflict on the Mavericks for “behavior going to the detriment of the league”. In its press release, the NBA justifies this sanction by saying that the Dallas franchise showed “a will to lose” the penultimate game of the season ( once morest Chicago on April 7) in order “to increase its chances of retaining its Draft 2023 first round pick”. A behavior that has “shaken the integrity of the game” according to Joe Dumars, boss of basketball operations at the NBA.

As a reminder, during this meeting once morest Chicago, the Mavs had decided not to play Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber, Josh Green et Christian Wood (the latter two for “rest”), while Luka Doncic only stayed on the floor for 13 minutes to honor “Slovenia Night”. However, Dallas was not yet mathematically eliminated from the race for the play-in tournament at that time, but Mark Cuban and the leaders of the Mavericks decided to favor the Draft, they who have a 2023 first-round pick protected Top 10 (this pick goes to the Knicks if not in the Top 10).

Mavericks fans will say, “but why us when so many other teams are tanking at the end of the season?”. Well, no doubt because the Mavs have publicly confessed their strategy (including coach Jason Kidd in a post-game press conference) unlike the other franchises, thus giving the NBA a royal path to punish them. It may be unfair but that’s how it is. The League nevertheless stopped at the stage of the fine, when it might have potentially withdrawn the Mavericks draft picks, as we have seen in the past with teams caught in the flag for tampering.

Imagine if the NBA had decided to take the 2023 first-round pick away from them… the total loser.

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Source texte : NBA

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