Adam Silver Says NBA Has More Work to Do Regarding Tanking Reform
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver admits the league still has work to do as it seeks ways to combat teams from tanking to improve their draft positioning.
Per ESPN's Ian Begley, after Friday's Board of Governors meeting in New York, Silver said the new draft lottery reform taking effect next year won't be enough to change the process of teams intentionally losing games.
"We recognize that our goal was to put the best competition on the floor, and it's balanced against legitimate rebuilding of some teams," he said. "But I know we're not there yet, and I certainly wasn't satisfied [this season]."
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told Julius Erving on the House Call with Dr. J podcast in February that "losing is our best option" because they weren't in contention for a playoff spot.
The NBA fined Cuban $600,000 for his comments.
Last year, the NBA Board of Governors approved a change to the draft lottery that will give teams with the three worst records an identical 14 percent chance to get the No. 1 overall pick.
Under the current system, the team with the worst record has a 25 percent chance to win the top draft choice. The second-worst team has a 19.9 percent chance, followed by the third-worst team at 15.6 percent.
"We'll see how much of an impact that has, but my sense is we're still going to have some work to do," Silver said Friday.
