NBA to investigate Mavericks over potential tanking
May 24, 2022; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban walks on the court before game four of the 2022 Western Conference finals against the Golden State Warriors at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
The NBA is not happy with what it saw from the Dallas Mavericks in Friday’s game against the Chicago Bulls.
League spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement Saturday that the NBA is launching an investigation into the Mavericks’ roster decisions for Friday’s 115-112 loss, “including the motivations behind those actions.”
NBA spokesman Mike Bass: "The NBA commenced an investigation today into the facts and circumstances surrounding the Dallas Mavericks’ roster decisions and game conduct with respect to last night’s Chicago Bulls-Mavericks game, including the motivations behind those actions.”
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 8, 2023
The Mavericks were rather blatant in their tanking Friday against Chicago. Despite the game being a must-win to keep their play-in hopes alive, Dallas ruled a number of key players out, including guard Kyrie Irving. Luka Doncic started the game, but did not play after the first quarter. The Mavericks would owe their first-round pick to the New York Knicks if it falls outside of the top ten, making this a fairly blatant tanking effort, as the Mavericks viewed keeping the pick as more beneficial than a long-shot bid for one of the final playoff spots in the West.
The Mavericks’ case was not helped when coach Jason Kidd essentially confirmed after the game that owner Mark Cuban and team president Nico Harrison had told him to hold out key players, calling them “decisions that are made from my bosses.”
The ending of the Bulls & Mavs game that eliminated the Mavs from Playoff contention
Kidd: "It's not so much waving the white flag. Decisions sometimes hard in this business…These are decisions that are made from my bosses & we gotta follow them."pic.twitter.com/BaddvOFmM8
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) April 8, 2023
The Mavericks are far from the only team that could be accused of essentially trying to lose down the stretch for draft position. However, they have by far been the most blatant about it, which likely caught the league’s attention.
It is not clear what the NBA could do if it finds fault in what the Mavericks did, but one would figure Cuban could be getting a pretty significant fine. It does not look great from an organizational standpoint either, which could be a problem from their star player’s perspective.