Once considered the best commissioner in all of sports, Adam Silver faced more questions than he had answers for at the NBA All-Star Weekend.
Silver has a low bar to clear – as Roger Goodell’s fascination with global expansion in the NFL outweigh his interest in consistent officiating of league discipline for off-field matters. Rob Manfed is in a league of his own, especially if baseball isn’t played in 2027 due to the looming MLB lockout.
But the NBA is facing many of their own challenges. During NBA All-Star Weekend, Silver was peppered with questions about expansion, which doesn’t seem any closer to happening. But more significantly, he was asked about the league’s growing tanking issue.
Over the weekend, Miami Heat two-way player Keshad Johnson won the dunk contest by default, and Damian Lillard won the three-point competition despite not suiting up for a single game with the Portland Trail Blazers yet this season. But tanking is a bigger issue than the lack of buzz or excitement around the NBA’s All-Star festivities.
Right now, a third of the NBA is completely non-competitive.
In the Eastern Conference, the Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls are in the Play-In Tournament slots despite records under .500. Out west, five teams have 20 wins or less.
The race to the bottom has been aggressive. While the 2026 NBA Draft class has coveted prospects including Kansas superstar Darryn Peterson and BYU star AJ Dybantsa, only two teams are going to select those players.
According to The Athletic, Silver is willing to threaten removing the NBA Draft altogether, allowing an entire rookie class to enter free agency. While drastic times call for drastic measures, abolishing the draft would likely be frowned upon by the NBA Player’s Association as well as small market teams that would always have a difficult time competing for premier rookies.
The truth is, Silver has no solution to fix the league’s tanking epidemic. The NBA can fine teams until they are blue in the face – these billionaire owners have plenty of money.
Back in the day, teams would strategically tank by assembling teams that had no business on an NBA court. But in modern day? Teams are shutting stars down left and right to load up their probability for the NBA Draft lottery. There’s no reason for the Utah Jazz to have shut down Jaren Jackson Jr., who they had just played for. The Milwaukee Bucks shouldn’t be allowed to shut down Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Some could argue that the Oklahoma City Thunder, who look primed to be the NBA’s next dynasty, are a product of tanking. But those were bad rosters. They weren’t willingly shutting down superstars.
The NBA is a wildly popular league with the youth. That’s the good news for Silver, who has done a great job appealing to younger fans utilizing social media. But is that younger demographic actually interacting with full games, which is the NBA’s core business?
Silver has to find a way to keep superstars on the floor. Then once they’re on the court, they need to be competing with full effort in the league’s way-too-long 82 game season. From there, he needs to figure out how to stop teams from intentionally tanking seasons, because it turns into an endless pattern.
Does that much losing really serve the fans? For what? A better draft pick?
They have to figure this out with no clear solution. Good luck, Silver.
