NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been combating tanking practices over the past week. Silver fined the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers for conduct detrimental to the league, citing teams for sitting healthy starters in competitive matches.
Silver revealed that the NBA's competition committee will be discussing ways to reformat the draft lottery to prevent tanking. While Silver is concerned with franchises manipulating the current system, last year's NBA Draft has drawn conspiracy theories for being rigged by league officials.
In an interview on Chapo Trap House, former Sports Illustrated and ESPN writer Pablo Torre recalled a conversation with two anonymous NBA owners.
"I'll tell you that I remember I was at an event and I spoke to two NBA owners. This was the day after the NBA lottery. And those two owners were both like, this was obviously fixed… I'm saying literally two NBA owners did not trust the hand of Adam Silver to remain out of the proceedings."
Last February, Luka Doncic was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. It was the first time in NBA history that two reigning All-NBA Team players were swapped for each other midseason.
Former Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison was met with widespread scrutiny for the move, as Dallas was coming off an NBA Finals appearance and Doncic had earned his fifth consecutive All-NBA First Team selection at 24 years old. Doncic continues to be a top-three contender in the MVP conversation.
Meanwhile, the now 32-year-old Davis has had a long history of injuries throughout his career. Davis was limited to only 29 games for the Mavericks before being traded to the Washington Wizards earlier this month. He has missed over four weeks of action due to ligament damage in his left hand.
Although the Mavericks clearly came out on the losing end of the trade, the franchise was fortunate to land the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Finishing tenth in the Western Conference standings, Dallas only had a 1.8% chance of landing the top pick.
With the Lakers being one of the top markets in the league, conspiracy theorists have suggested that the No. 1 pick was given to the Mavericks as a reward for sending Doncic to Los Angeles. Whether true or not, the timing seems to be relatively coincidental.
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