[The Athletic] “I would just say, Sean,” [Adam] Silver said, “you could assume for next season your only incentive will be to win games.” There was a noticeable shift in Silver’s tone and demeanor on this particular issue: “He sounded more like Stern than Silver.”
“Have you guys given any thought to that?” Marks asked Wasch, according to notes of the call provided to The Athletic by three executives on the call.
Wasch gently reminded Marks that the potential changes would be implemented next season so teams would have some time to change strategies, said those three executives on the call granted anonymity by The Athletic to share sensitive discussions.
Then Wasch asked NBA commissioner Adam Silver if he wanted to weigh in.
“I would just say, Sean,” Silver said, “you could assume for next season your only incentive will be to win games.”
The exchange with Silver toward Marks, and a few others between the NBA commissioner and the general managers being watched — and penalized — by the league for trying to lose to improve their draft status, especially with months left in the season, highlighted the tension between team executives trying to strategize rebuilds under the league’s current rules against a Silver administration concerned by the appearance that the integrity of the sport is being threatened by the practice.
There was a noticeable shift in Silver’s tone and demeanor on this particular issue, according to the three executives who spoke with The Athletic, with one of them saying, “He sounded more like Stern than Silver,” referencing Silver’s occasionally brazen predecessor David Stern, who was known for telling owners, general managers, players and reporters exactly what he thought, with choice words.
The sentiment was also expressed on the call that general managers must present long-term plans to their owners, and for bad teams those plans include tanking — so there is incentive for general managers to oversee lengthy rebuilds through tanking to get better draft picks for their own job security.
Silver told the executives on the call that the league had to change incentives “and mindsets,” so executives don’t have to implement tanking to save their jobs.
One GM of a team that had undergone a tank and came out the other side of it as one of the strongest teams in the league said the executives on the call needed to “support Adam on this.” Another said “we are all to blame,” citing both rules that needed to change and teams taking too much advantage of those rules.
“Let’s just say the message was sent,” one of the executives on the call said. “I am very happy Adam said what he said.”
Another executive on the call, from one of the league’s currently tanking teams, said, “There’s no doubt there is a heightened level of tension between front offices and the league.
“Overwhelmingly, everyone realizes changes are coming and they need to come,” the executive continued. “It’s a matter of when and what and how. What changes you implement, do they last a year, five years, is this a quick band-aid? That’s not what we want.”
Any changes would have to be approved by the league’s board of governors (team owners, or their representatives to the board), and the next meeting is in March, Wasch added. But Wasch also said part of the goal of this particular meeting was to get input from the general managers as to which rule changes would actually get them to stop tanking, or to commit to playing their best players, night in and night out, regardless of record.