2023-04-15 08:13:00
15.04.2023
Mega penalty for Cheating Mavericks
The Minnesota Timberwolves and Miami Heat have secured the last two spots in the NBA playoffs. The NBA, on the other hand, took tough action once morest the Dallas Mavericks and severely punished the Texans following the attempt at cheating.
The Timberwolves dominated the Oklahoma City Thunder, especially in the second half, and earned a first-round series once morest the Denver Nuggets with a 120:95. The Bucks and the Nuggets were the best teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences in the main round.
Meanwhile, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo and defending champion Nikola Jokic got the most votes in the Most Valuable Player of the Season poll. The league announced this a day before the start of the play-off. 100 journalists had until the end of the main round in the world’s best basketball league to cast their votes.
Serb Jokic, who plays for the Denver Nuggets, has won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) title for the past two years. Antetokounmpo has also been voted MVP twice, the Greek from the Milwaukee Bucks received the award in 2019 and 2020. It would be a first for Cameroonian Embiid, who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers. The NBA will announce who has won during the playoffs.
Dallas is presented with a bill
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has fined the Dallas Mavericks $750,000 (€680,889) for losing just before the end of the season. The North American professional league justified the decision with the fact that the team broke the rules when numerous regulars were not used in the game once morest the Chicago Bulls on April 7, although they were not injured.
This has “damaged the integrity of our sport,” said NBA Vice President Joe Dumars, according to a statement on Friday. Before and following the game, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd made it clear that management had decided not to use players like Kyrie Irving at all and Luka Doncic only briefly. He called it a “decision of the organization”. However, the players used did not lose intentionally, the NBA found in its investigation.
With only theoretical chances of qualifying for the play-in and thus a residual hope of the play-offs, it was obviously more important to the management around club boss Marc Cuban not to let the season balance become too good. The reason for this was an old transfer agreement with the New York Knicks.
Hoping for draft lottery
If Dallas has the right to access a young player beyond the top ten for the first time in the draft following the end of the season, this so-called pick goes to the Knicks. However, if the Mavericks are among the top ten teams eligible to pick, they retain that right. The worse a team performs in the season, the earlier it gets a draft pick. In the NBA, the first access right is also raffled among the worst teams. With luck, Dallas would also have the chance of the exceptional French talent Victor Wembanyama.
It is not uncommon for teams in the NBA to accept many defeats in order to improve their position in the draft through so-called tanking. However, this is not discussed publicly and the comments from Mavericks officials have put the NBA under pressure. In 2018, Cuban had to pay a $600,000 fine for speaking publicly regarding tanking in a podcast.
The league also announced on Friday that contractless Miles Bridges has been suspended for 30 games over allegations of domestic violence. The forward, who last played for the Charlotte Hornets in the 2021/22 season, was arrested in Los Angeles in the summer for allegedly hitting his children’s mother. The NBA credited 20 of the 30 games to the past season in which Bridges was not active. Should he sign with a team for the coming season, he would only actually have to sit out ten NBA games.
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