(Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)
As we have reached the All-Star break, the noise for another epidemic across the NBA — tanking — has only continued to grow louder, so much so that the league provided two slap-on-the-wrist fines to the Utah Jazz ($500K) and Indiana Pacers ($100K) for their recent player participation management.
The Jazz’s efforts were far more obvious, resting Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen and Jusuf Nurkic in the fourth quarter in an effort to lose and help maintain premium draft lottery odds as the offseason nears.
That measure occurred in two games. Though one of them wasn’t actually a loss. They won — 115-111 — against the Miami Heat.
“The Utah Jazz organization has been fined $500,000 for conduct detrimental to the league related to the team’s games against the Orlando Magic on Feb. 7 and the Miami Heat on Feb. 9,” the league wrote in a press release. “During those games, the Jazz removed two of the team’s top players, Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson, Jr., before the beginning of the fourth quarter and did not return them to the game, even though these players were otherwise able to continue to play and the outcomes of the games were thereafter in doubt.”
Miami’s loss to Utah came on the second night of a back-to-back; the Heat crushed the Washington Wizards, 132-101, the day prior. That didn’t make their loss any less embarrassing, either.
The whole world knows the Jazz’s intentions, though reading the league’s press release where it says “the Miami Heat on Feb. 9” in fine print makes it sting that much more. It’s also a direct indication of where the Heat are as a franchise; they can beat, and lose to, pretty much any team on any given night, the ultimate sign of mediocrity.
Miami enters the All-Star break at 29-27. They are still without a clear direction, which is concerning, to say the least. The league must address the tanking crisis; it must put real effort in — no half-measures. Though I think that, no matter the solution, there will be unintended consequences that will still lead teams, like the Jazz, to find ways to tank with aim to acquire talent.
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