This Adam Silver NBA Draft update comes from his anti-tanking speech Saturday during his annual address during All-Star weekend at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The war on intentionally providing a subpar product has ramped up. Silver is playing the role of Duke Nukem, and he’s all out of bubblegum.
Silver dropped his first bomb last week. The Utah Jazz were fined $500,000, and the Indiana Pacers $100,000, for breaching player participation policies. Yahoo! Sports confirms details of the developing story, including statements from the commissioner.
“Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory? Yes, is my view,” Silver said. “Which was what led to those those fines, and not just those fines, but to my statement that we’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behavior, and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice.”
The second wave hit Saturday, when Silver dropped the eyebrow-raising news that surprised fans everywhere. Only time will tell if this is an empty threat, a well-calculated maneuver, or something that’s genuinely on the table. Would he actually replace the rookie draft with free agency? That’s at least the nugget he wants on the minds of team ownership.
While tanking is a problem for fans of those teams, one would hope this is a throwaway comment. Fans of teams with less talent or small markets would never realistically expect any of the top rookies to choose a tattered franchise. This attempt to improve parity could potentially drive a bigger wedge than ever before.
Whether it’s placing rookies in free agency or taking away draft picks, these drastic actions are drawing attention worldwide. Both sides of the argument have a valid claim of simply trying to improve the product. In a never-ending chase for the perfect product, at what point can the product be allowed to exist?
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