The NBA’s loyalties have shifted from what’s best for teams to what’s best for gamblers – Deseret News

Why the Utah Jazz?

Tanking is not new to the NBA, and there are plenty of other teams that are just as blatant with exaggerated injury reports. Teams have been utilizing tanking for decades as a means to build a roster, and players have been shut down for irrational amounts of time along the way, so why has the NBA focused so much attention on the Jazz?

It’s important to call a spade a spade and say what everyone is thinking. There is growing belief across the league, in front offices, on coaching staffs and among players, that the NBA is reacting to outrage from the gambling community.

This isn’t just the belief of those within the league. It’s being whispered in NBA hallways between reporters and team staffers, broadcasters and agents, and the fans have picked up on the inconsistencies from the NBA and how the circumstantial evidence continues to point to gambling as a reason for the recent ire.

The Jazz say that Lauri Markkanen has a sprained ankle and hip impingement. They say that he had an awkward landing during practice on Wednesday. They say he had an MRI on Thursday and that they’ll review the imaging before updating his status. He did not play in the Jazz’s 129-118 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday night.

I’m not saying that the injury is not real or that the Jazz made up the scenario that led to the injury. But, in late February, you’d be hard-pressed to find an NBA starter that doesn’t have a bump, bruise or strain that can easily be exploited.

And this is what the NBA prefers, rather than having Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jusuf Nurkic or any other player play limited minutes.

If the stars of a team play in three of the four quarters of an NBA game, the fans who wanted to see them get what they paid for, the players get the reps they need as they continue to develop for the future with the young players on the roster.

Additionally, the fans get to see a glimpse of what next season could bring. It creates better competition for the opposing team through the majority of the game.

But an active Markkanen, who only plays three quarters, comes up short on minutes and point totals. That’s not good for the over/under crowd.

This isn’t about the fans not getting what they want. Anyone who has seen the crowds at the Delta Center over the last four years knows that the fans believe in what the Jazz are doing and building.

Why not outrage over the Washington Wizards not playing Anthony Davis and Trae Young, despite their absences going well beyond what the expected timeline is for their injuries? Despite the emptiness of the arena in D.C. and lack of hope from the fanbase? Because no one really believed that Davis or Young were going to play after being traded. Nobody was placing bets on them.

Why no outrage over the Sacramento Kings regularly shutting down every veteran on the roster? Because an inactive player, announced ahead of time, doesn’t put the oddsmakers at odds with those who place the bets.

But the uncertainty of Pascal Siakam’s game-day status for the Indiana Pacers, when he’s been available for upwards of 50 games this season? You get the point.

In past years, the NBA was not so closely tied to gambling, but now the relationship between the two worlds is completely intertwined.

You can’t consume any NBA content without being inundated with DraftKings and FanDuel ads. Coaches and players are regularly sent death threats for their decisions and performances. My inbox is full of people wanting early access to player availability.

The NBA doesn’t want to admit that it has opened the door to a problem that has grown beyond its control. The NBA doesn’t want to admit that it can massage the player participation policy to keep the gambling world happy.

Rather, the league wants to punish the teams for operating within a system that incentivizes losing. The league would rather put the blame on the teams that are forced to build through the draft than risk losing engagement and profit that comes from gambling.

You probably won’t hear players or coaches or NBA executives say these things into a microphone, but make no mistake, this is what they are thinking and saying behind closed doors.