Adam Silver labeled the threat of teams egregiously tanking as a “serious issue” when he addressed it last week. But apparently, the NBA commissioner wasn't “deadly serious” about it.
With the prize of Victor Wembanyama dangling right above every non-contending teams' noses, it's an especially great year to tank. Silver, who recently had an in-depth conversation with Phoenix Suns employees over the Robert Sarver scandal, was asked about his efforts to alleviate tanking. He answered by claiming to have put NBA front offices “on notice”, while hinting at a controversial idea that's reportedly been discussed – relegation.
In the report from ESPN's Baxter Holmes, Adam Silver did hedge hard on the viability of NBA relegation. But of course, that didn't stop social media from latching onto the idea even being raised as a far-fetched option.
After the subject of NBA relegation made the rounds, Silver went on NBA Today to clear the air on the matter. Long story short, it's not going to happen:
“I can't say I was deadly serious about relegation because you don't have the same system as European soccer. It would make no sense to send an NBA team to the G-League, or the G-League team up to the NBA,” Adam Silver said of relegation.
Make sense from a competitive perspective? Absolutely. Make sense from a financial perspective? Definitely not. The NBA is a business at the end of the day with billionaires invested into the teams that share a huge chunk of the revenue pie that the league divvies up. None of them signed up for any risk to be removed from their seat at the table, eating that tasty pie.
Follow Us
Subscribe