For years, the NBA has made an effort to curb tanking, the practice of teams intentionally losing in order to gain advantages in the coming seasons, such as preferable draft picks. The league has expanded playoffs to incentivize strong late-season performance and, more recently, fined franchises as much $750,000 for intentionally losing late-season games.
Billionaire investor and former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban doesn’t see this deliberate underperformance as an issue. The NBA should “embrace tanking,” he said, and instead address the real reason holding the sport back: that more people can’t afford to go to games.
“Tanking isn’t the issue. Affordability and quality of game presentation are,” Cuban wrote in an X post on Tuesday. “The NBA should worry more about fan experience than tanking. It should worry more about pricing fans out of games than tanking.”
According to Cuban, who sold his majority stake in the Mavericks in 2023 for $3.5 billion, the NBA is not in the sports business, but rather the “business of creating experiences for fans.” He said fans are less interested in seeing their teams win every night than in the memories of watching a game and the hope of one day competing in the playoffs and hoisting the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.
“Few can remember the score from the last game they saw or went to,” Cuban said. “They can’t remember the dunks or shots. What they remember is who they were with. Their family, friends, a date. That’s what makes the experience special.”
“Fans know their team can’t win every game,” he continued. Instead, fans want hope. “Hope they will get better and have a chance to compete for the playoffs and then maybe a ring.”
The NBA is projected to generate $14.3 billion in the 2025-2026 season, Sportico reported, a 12% bump from last season’s $12.75 billion. More than one-quarter of the league’s revenue comes from seating and suites, and combined with the 9% coming from concessions and parking, make up the second-largest chunk of the NBA’s income. That fraction is second only to national revenue in large part from its new 11-year, $76 billion media deal, making fan attendance a crucial part of the NBA’s payday.
Meanwhile, discretionary spending for Americans has been mixed this year, driven primarily by higher-income households and stymied by lower-income families pulling back, perpetuating a K-shaped economy. According to the January Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey, 18.4% of Americans intend to spend more on entertainment, including sporting events, in the next six months, a slight dip from the month before.
Basketball’s affordability foul
Professional basketball’s affordability took the spotlight last week during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend, which The Athletic culture writer Jason Jones said at times “had the vibes of a 7 a.m. Zoom call.”
With ample empty seats (despite the announced sellout crowd, via a league spokesperson) and a feeling of “meh” in the Intuit Dome, no amount of Ludacris performing “Stand Up” could increase the energy,” Jones wrote in a column. “But when sporting events become too corporate, this is the result.”
To be sure, the All-Star Weekend had its highest ratings in 15 years, in part a result of the league revamping the game’s format to feature three teams in a round-robin mini tournament.
The NBA did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Jones suggested the event prioritized sponsors and famous courtside guests, as well as showcasing the games on social media. a sound business decision in terms of boosting traffic across platforms and spotlighting big-name backers, but one that was not tailored to the experience of fans in the arena.
Moreover, the tickets are prohibitively expensive to many, Jones argued. Individual stubs started at around $200, meaning it would cost a family of four about $800 to attend the weekend’s events in the arena’s least expensive seats.
It’s not just the All-Star Weekend that has become pricier for fans. The Washington Post reported in October 2025 that nearly 83% of pricing tiers for Wizards tickets increased on a per-game basis this season amid arena renovations and a team rebuild, turning off some fans. The Mavericks, with a majority stake now held by the Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont family, similarly raised prices 8.61% following the 2024-2025 season—despite its fans’ ire over the franchise trading All-Star point guard Luka Dončić in a shocking move.
Tanking controversy
Cuban noted tanking can help enhance a fan’s experience—whether attending a game or not—as it can kindle the hope at the core of fandom. Beyond allowing teams to nab favorable draft picks and leverage high-profile players in trades for young talent, Cuban said it can also free up payroll for a team looking to make a big acquisition down the line.
The Mavericks didn’t often tank in Cuban’s 23 years as part-owner of the team, according to the mogul, but when the team did, “our fans appreciated it,” he said. Cuban claimed the practice allowed the team to eventually improve and acquire Dončić in 2018.
Research on the impact of tanking on fan’s experience of basketball doesn’t always support Cuban’s argument. A study published in Sport Marketing Quarterly in 2020 found perceived tanking to be unpopular among NBA fans, who strongly disliked the practice regardless of their team’s record.
Cuban said for many families trying to make memories at a game, tanking just isn’t top of mind.
“You know who cares the least about tanking?” he questioned. “A parent who [can’t] afford to bring their three kids to a game and buy their kids a jersey of their fave player.”