Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban has been fined $600,000 for admitting that he told some of his players that the best option for the team right now is to tank, ESPN reports.
Cuban made a guest appearance on former star NBA player Julius Erving’s podcast “House Call With Dr. J.”
There, he said, “I’m probably not supposed to say this, but, like, I just had dinner with a bunch of our guys the other night, and here we are, you know, we weren’t competing for the playoffs. I was like, ‘Look, losing is our best option.”‘
This was not the first time Cuban publicly endorsed tanking. He made similar comments last year, saying that Dallas would be better suited to lose, but that comment was made once the team was already eliminated from playoff contention.
Dallas has a record of 18-40, currently the third worst in the NBA. With about a quarter of the season remaining, and only a half game separating them from last place in the league, tanking is definitely a viable option for a franchise looking to replenish with youthful talent.
For the 14 teams that don’t make the NBA playoffs, a lottery is held to determine the top three picks with the teams with the worst records having a higher percentage chance of getting one of those top three selections. The teams that do not get a top three pick are given selections 4 through 14, based on record inversely.
The NBA has voted to change the lottery rules, and starting in 2019 the teams with the three worst records will have an equal chance of obtaining the top overall pick. These changes are a direct result of the Philadelphia Sixers tanking. They, in an effort to obtain valuable assets via the draft, traded all of their best players to field a team that resembled a high school varsity team.
Cuban has had a terrible 36 hours. Tuesday night a scathing report published by Sports Illustrated detailed inappropriate sexual misconduct by the Mavs former president Terdema Ussery. (RELATED: Dallas Mavericks Former President Accused Of Sexual Misconduct)