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\n\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by Ethan Miller\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tThe NBA Commissioner was not playing around.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Adam Silver has fined the Utah Jazz $500,000 and the Indiana Pacers $100,000, blasting what he described as overt tanking that \u201cundermines the foundation of NBA competition.\u201d The league announced the penalties on Thursday, targeting lineup decisions that appeared to prioritize draft positioning over winning games.<\/p>\n
According to Reuters<\/a>, the Jazz were punished for conduct detrimental to the league stemming from their Feb 7 game against the Orlando Magic and their Feb 9 matchup with the Miami Heat. In both contests, forwards Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. were pulled for the entire fourth quarter despite the outcomes hanging in the balance. Recently, Craig Carson also said that the NBA should suspend LeBron James.<\/a><\/p>\n The league said the results of those games were \u201cthereafter in doubt,\u201d noting the two matchups were decided by a combined seven points. Utah surrendered a 94\u201387 lead entering the fourth quarter in a 120\u2013117 loss at Orlando. Two days later, the Jazz held on for a narrow 115\u2013111 win over Miami while again sitting their best players in crunch time.<\/p>\n The NBA Commissioner Was Not Tolerating It <\/p>\n Earlier Thursday, the Jazz announced that Jackson, acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies ahead of the trade deadline, will undergo surgery on his left knee and could miss the remainder of the season. The timing of that update followed closely on the heels of the league\u2019s investigation into the team\u2019s player usage.<\/p>\n Indiana was fined $100,000 for violating the NBA\u2019s player participation policy. An independent physician\u2019s review determined that forward Pascal Siakam and two other starters were medically able to play in the Pacers\u2019 Feb. three-game series against Utah, even if only in reduced minutes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The league added that Indiana could have managed the players\u2019 workloads differently in other games to better comply with the policy. Instead, the decision to sit multiple important contributors in that matchup seems to have raised red flags about competitive intent.<\/p>\n In a sharply worded statement, commissioner Adam Silver made clear the NBA views these situations as more than routine load management. \u201cOvert behavior like this that prioritizes draft position over winning undermines the foundation of NBA competition, and we will respond accordingly to any further actions that compromise the integrity of our games,\u201d Silver said. He added that the league is working with its Competition Committee and Board of Governors to implement further measures aimed at eliminating such conduct.<\/p>\n The Utah Jazz have struggled through the 2025-26 NBA season with a record of 18\u201337, placing them near the bottom of the Western Conference standings. They rank near the league\u2019s lowest in winning percentage and have posted inconsistent results, despite averaging about 118.3 points per game offensively. Defensively, Utah has allowed over 126 points per game, one of the highest marks in the league, which explains their sub-400 records.<\/p>\n Indiana\u2019s recent results show more competitive consistency in the Eastern Conference, despite their own fine. In a Feb 4 matchup, the Jazz beat the Pacers 131\u2013122, with Utah\u2019s Isaiah Collier tallying a career-high 22 assists while playing with a depleted roster. Indiana has also been involved in high-scoring affairs against Utah, including a Nov. 11 game where the Jazz scored 152 points in a win over the Pacers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Ethan Miller\/Getty Images The NBA Commissioner was not playing around. | Published: Feb 13, 2026 10:11…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,29433,113,126,3866,6,114],"class_list":["post-602178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-basketball","tag-hide-from-homepage","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-nba","tag-pacers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116067348429398970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}