Yes, the Utah Jazz have been tanking to ensure better lottery odds.
And, yes, the Jazz yanked starters from the end of some games because it would probably mean that they would lose those games (except they didn’t).
But, those truths and the facts that Jaren Jackson Jr. has a tumor in his knee, that the Jazz are giving their youngest players with the most need for extra NBA reps valuable time on the court in late-game situations, and that the Jazz are playing within the system created by the NBA’s most powerful, are not mutually exclusive.
It can all be true! It is all true! And, because it’s all true, it means that the NBA handed out a fine and that league commissioner Adam Silver gave a statement that are completely contradictory in nature.
The Jazz were fined $500,000 on Thursday for “conduct detrimental to the league,” and Silver said that the Jazz’s behavior “undermines the foundation of NBA competition,” and compromises “the integrity of our games.”
So, let’s talk about the foundation of NBA competition and the integrity of the game.
The NBA has, plainly and explicitly, told every franchise that the teams with the worst records have the best chance at the most talented and highly rated draft prospects. But don’t try to lose, because that would be bad.
The NBA has stressed the importance of parity and fair and balanced opportunities at building great teams. But star players are, of course, allowed to demand and force their way to teams in large markets (never to places like Utah, or Indiana, or perish the thought, Sacramento!).
The NBA loves to promote how forward-thinking and hip it is with streaming options, social media interactions tallied, crypto here, NFTs there, gambling promoted, and influencers invited to All-Star Weekend, where the gimmicks will abound. But do as we say, not as we do. Don’t try to change and zag and find new paths to success.
The foundation of NBA competition is that the ultimate goal for every NBA team is to win a title, by any means necessary. Well … at least by any means that are available to them.
It’s completely acceptable for team decision makers to publicly say that they are not going to be able to build through free agency (because no one is choosing to go to Utah), and that they have to instead build through the draft and trades (so long as it’s not a trade for a top player who has other trade destinations in mind). But then, when a team tries to build through the draft, it’s seen as an act against the foundation of NBA competition.
Integrity, like it or not, is subjective. The moral code and the ethics behind the actions and behaviors of one group can be seen as teeming with integrity, while, at the same time, be seen as completely antithetical to the integrity of another group.
There is a massive group of people who understand the necessity for tanking within the NBA’s current system. There is integrity in making a large institution reap what it has sown when it explicitly incentivizes losing. There is integrity in taking advantage of a system in order to deliver fans a team worth cheering for, rather than wading in mediocrity because of someone else’s version of integrity.
That is how you end up with a generation of fans who revere Sam Hinkie like a deity in Philadelphia. That is how you end up with absolute NBA sickos gleefully tuning in to see Aleksej Pokusevski start for the Oklahoma City Thunder and play 41 minutes in a late-March game against the Portland Trail Blazers.
It’s how diamonds in the rough who are gritty, dependable and unshakeable like Lu Dort, T.J. McConnell and Svi Mykhailiuk are found and polished and then trusted by teams that are competing at the very highest level of the NBA.
It’s how many NBA fans, and sometimes the players themselves, deepen their appreciation for development coaches, the value of NBA minutes and the privilege of playing a game for millions upon millions of dollars. The lines between the good and the great become clearer when integrity is offered in different forms.
Is it a display of integrity to fine a team for sitting starters in the fourth quarter of a game when that team has been one of the most consistent playoff teams of the past 42 years, while not batting an eye when a team that has made just a single playoff appearance in the last 20 years will rule out all its starters for the entirety of games?
Is it a display of integrity when reporters, fans, NBA players from other teams, and everyone in between see the news of Trae Young and Anthony Davis being traded to the Washington Wizards and openly mock the Wizards, predicting that the two players’ injuries will linger into late April?
I would argue that a display of integrity is a player wanting to play in a handful of games for his new team and the fans despite recently learning that he has a tumor in his knee.
I would argue that a display of integrity is Jazz coach Will Hardy saying that when he is told by medical staff that his players are on minutes restrictions, he will follow those instructions. He said that, rather than taking a more sarcastic and biting approach when answering questions about the NBA’s fines levied against the Jazz.
I, however, am a fan of the low road, and if I were Hardy, I probably would have said something like: Wow, I’m really happy that commissioner Silver is around to help me coach. My workload just got so much lighter. Every day, instead of planning my rotations, I will await the commissioner’s instructions on who I am allowed to play along with which quarters and what minutes they are allowed to play. This is an exciting day for basketball! Huzzah!
And, what about what the fans want?
Sure, there are some that would want the Jazz to try to win no matter the year or roster. But there are a great many fans that would be absolutely furious if the Jazz won just enough games this season to lose their first-round pick to the Thunder, giving the reigning NBA champions a lottery pick. That doesn’t really feel like the move that would promote parity and fairness.
And Jazz fans have been clamoring and begging for the younger players on the roster to be given ample and broad NBA reps. So when the Jazz let those young players run, uninterrupted, at the end of a close game, or even give them the chance to fight back at the end of games that seem out of hand, Jazz fans are getting what they have wanted for years, and those players are being scrutinized and evaluated deeply by the Jazz brass in order to figure out what makes sense for the future.
Again, tanking and working toward becoming a better team are not mutually exclusive goals. The Jazz have said that one of the main priorities of the last few years has been the development of their many, many, many young players. But that’s not a priority for the NBA. Not when it means that Lauri Markkanen plays about six minutes less than the league office sees fit.
If the NBA wanted teams to focus solely on winning, they wouldn’t have created a system that rewards losing. And until the league fixes that and truly addresses issues that impact parity and large-market favoritism, then any kind of preaching about “integrity” or “foundation of NBA competition” is going to ring hollow.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver talks to reporters before Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Boston. | AP