Bub Carrington: “We haven’t been told to be the best version of ourselves. We were held back because we were trying to get AJ Dybantsa. That’s no secret.”
lmao has a player ever admitted to tanking this openly before? literally says they were held back with the intent of losing.
I don’t remember something this brazenly open. And your team was at least hoping to PRETEND it was a secret, buddy.
Trust the Process?
The players were playing their hearts out though, they just gutted any talent for picks, if they weren’t all nba potential
Trust the process worked too well and the Sixers had to screw it up trading up for Fultz
Good luck on your next contract kid
Jason Kidd admitted that the mavs benched starters so they wouldn’t make the playin and got them fined 750k.
Yeah, Mavs tanked for two games that year. Wizards were tanking for generations and nothing happens. AD wanted to play, Young wanted to play and here we are.
Wizards tanked like a season and a half. We had a 3 year rebuild one was selling off everyone worth anything two we had like 3 good rookies and that was it and this year
Openly admitting you don’t want the playoffs is a lot worse
Wizards and 3 year rebuild xD when was the last time you meant something. Beal and Wall? Being shit for this long should relegate you from league or move your place to a city that cares about basketball
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I never heard it expressed this plainly. We all know teams tank, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone admit that they didn’t try their hardest.
Michael Porter admitted the Nets were tanking last season on a recent episode of his podcast.
Isiah Thomas revealed that Detroit tanked to get Grant Hill.
This could mean lots of things though. Keefe and Wizards FO can just say “we were encouraging our young players to work on things they aren’t great at for their own development” and that’s it
‘We haven’t been told to go be the best version of ourselves.. We’ve been held back… we were trying to get AJ Debansa.. now there’s no more handcuffs..’
Idk man, that’s a pretty far cry from ‘oh yeah no we just wanted the young players to work on themselves’ lol
Jakob Poeltl two years ago basically told the world that
IIRC Enes Kanter mentioned it after he played for the Knicks. I think he said it on the BS pod in 2019(?)
It was probably intentional. PR teams wouldn’t let him say these things unless it was MPJ.
Management held them back is not players tanking. There is a distinction.
I think Jeremy Lin said something similar in that he realized the front office wanted to tank when he was having a good game through 3 quarters in a tight game then benched him for the 4th which they then went on to lose and he was pissed about it
I mean sure but is he allowed to say that?
What is the NBA gonna do? Take AJ away from them?
That would make this the weirdest off season of all time. Do it Adam!
Can we have him instead?
The punishment is they must continue to be the Washington Wizards franchise and reside in DC.
Living in DC is great. Being a wizard? Not so much
Really wish they’d be called the bullets again
Agent 0 and Javaris Crittenton made sure that’ll never happen.
wdym? DCs 1 of the coolest cities in the world. Got everything youd want…..all kinds of entertainment, history, solid sports, 3 world class schools (Gtown-HU-UMD) and a great transit system. I wish could live or at least visit there.
Ive been saying for yrs if the Wizards ever get it together look out bc guys will be fighting each other to play there.
Spoken like someone who doesn’t know DC. That city is great. Expensive, but a great city. I say this as someone who has lived in 4 different major cities in the US.
Been there twice; Loved it both times. Definitely gonna go back.
what’s great about it
Great, if you lots of $$$ there are a bunch of shitty areas
And no one deserves that
Damn that’s like an SMU level death penalty.
The punishment is they can never rebrand
lol fuck your trash filled city and the Knicks
DC and New York both rule
Their new GM is Bryan Colangelo.
That’s a normal draft pick, find a different slant
The new anti-tanking rules actually does give Silver more unilateral power to do what he needs to do. So never say never.
Ballmer circumvents, Kawhi aspires but we must punish the Wizards!
It’s not like ballmer wasn’t punished
His fine was the equivalent of $21 for somebody that makes 100k a year.
Wizards have been punishing themselves since their inception. Besides a few seasons. I think we can give them a break
dont give em any ideas
“Nooooo my AJ. Stop the repo man!”
This is blatantly admitting to tanking.
Silver might fine him but he’ll probably just say he didnt mean they were losing intentionally but that rhe pieces just didn’t fit
Moved to the Atlanta Jawks
Take him away and let the Lakers, Celtics, and Knicks fight over him
the nba has the opportunity to do the funniest thing of all time
Fine them like they did the Mavericks a few years ago when Kidd admitted the same shit like a moron
Except the mavericks tanked like two games, the wizards tanked seasons
That would make for great entertainment. Send him to the Knicks for the hell of it!
Is there a way Adam Silver can punish the Wizard by giving AJ to the Lakers?
I guess the pacers would make sense, since they didn’t have a first round pick,
Otherwise someone else would be doubling up.
Please don’t say that! The Curse of Les Boulez might be invoked
I dont care hes my favorite wizard now
Gandalf in shambles
It’s 2026 bro, Mash is the new dude
Who?
I know nobody watches them often, but he should have been before. He is awesome
Bub Carrington?!
Absolutely. I live near DC and always try to make a few games a year. He is one of the more fun players to watch there. i think he is going to surprise some folks
He’s a high energy high vibes guy. Tons of promise and a knockdown shooter. His real issue is dpm because it turns out a 6’4” dude is not an effective center
Mavs got fined for 750k after Jason Kidd said something similar after sitting starters to avoid making the play in:
It’s not strictly a look at the younger guys, it’s a decision that was made from my bosses, Mark and Nico, and we’re going to follow it. We’ve got to execute the plan that’s been put in front of us, and so that’s what we’re doing.
There’s a big difference between the standards a coach’s words are held to and that of a 21 year old player
And this is way more egregious than that
This statement was more egregious but the context was worse from Kidd as it was from a coach and it was about the playoffs.
Idk going from a 35 win team to a 25 win team is less bad imo than intentionally missing the playoff
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I’m glad he did, must suck playing for a team that is purposefully bombing.
People never consider how tanking impacts the young players on those teams. It’s genuinely broken some young players. People forget rookie Jahlil Okafor fighting a fan because they taunted him over their losing record.
Losing sucks. Being told to lose sucks more. Being told to lose because the people on the team, including you, are not good enough to even try to win can be extremely hard on a young person who has spent their entire life working on the game of basketball. These guys are insanely competitive, tanking goes against the core identity they’ve built their lives around.
Taking instills a loser mentality that, like you said, some players never recover from.
Vet leadership is important, and finding these vets who are willing to go to these bad teams and be the vet they need for that moment are hard to find.
CP3 comes to mind when he was in OKC (although that was also a unique situation).
That’s why I was excited about getting Khris back, seems like a great NBA vet to have on a team. AD seems good for the young guys too.
Imagine playing to earn a new contract and your coach is sabotaging you. Not ideal.
The wizards plan made it pretty good on a lot of the young guys l. They have been upfront since drafting and picked a lot of guys that aren’t even fully grown, and gave them a ton of minutes. They get way more reps than they would be getting otherwise. We intentionally selected for guys that bought in long term
Bub helped us get Ace Bailey. He can say whatever he wants
Who cares? They already changed the tanking rules and only 2 teams got punished for tanking last year and neither were the wizards.
Yay
He’s probably trying to Gtfo Washington. They brought in Trae and traded for street clothes, one can’t play defense and one can’t stay healthy enough to play offense or defense. Wizards also have stunted his potential since day 1.
Please explain how they have stunted his potential. He’s played 82 games his rookie and sophomore season at 30 and 28 min per game with considerable on ball reps. How many other teams would he have gotten that much opportunity
Most people here haven’t seen the wizards play last season, it’s the sad truth. Your team is going to be a fun watch this season
The rest of the owners still had to agree that the wizards got the number one pick.
I think the NBA is fully aware of the situation last season. That’s why there are new draft lottery rules. Wizards weren’t the only team involved.
He’s wild for saying that on tape 😂
I fully believe the way the people “in charge “ of our country act right now is having a greater impact than even the ignorant person can imagine.
You have an entire younger generation of ppl growing up and looking at their leaders, seeing first hand that as long as you’re irreplaceable in that moment , whether that moment is 1 day or 1 year, you can pretty much do or say anything without any monumental repercussions
This is just the start of people in the limelight saying whatever they want to. Whether beneficial or negative they will say whatever is on the tip of their tongue bc there is no penalty as long as they’re in a good spot.
The ripple effects will take years to fully display
I would go a step further and say that when you see a politician who is an actual idiot or insane person, the people in their district are going to mostly be similar to that person. I dated this girl from Marietta, Georgia and over the time I realized she was like a bimbo and a bigot and years later here I am seeing Marjorie Talore Green, from the same area, acting just like my fucking ex.
This is what George Carlin said. “We have shit politicians because we have shit people. Garbage in, garbage out.”
East Cobb*** is what that area is known as now. Marietta is a big place, and west Marietta certainly isn’t the same place
Isn’t that where Ron Simmons and Cody Rhodes come from?
you guys think politics is way more important than it actually is lmao
nobody is emulating their local politician. most dont even know who tf they are
Your reading comprehension is atrocious. But makes sense since you feel comfortable sharing a brain dead take like “you guys think politics is way more than it actually is”. What district do you live in? I want to see something.
Sure, but what Bub said isnt bad. It isnt keeping up the lie. Everyone knows what is going on and yet they still want to keep up the coy act? I dont see this as a reflection of our administration at all. He is “keeping it real” while the administration constantly does the opposite. Thoughts?
WTF you blaming him for stating the obvious when it was the organization that made the decision to lose on purpose. More players should do this because losing games negatively affects their future earnings.
You’re completely missing the point. Bub isn’t being blamed here. Think bigger picture.
Exactly i agree wholeheartedly. I wish we could use our superior reddit skills and intellect to make these basketball subredditors see what we see about how American politics made Bub Carrington admit to tanking. That’d be awesome 😃
Wizards fans definitely mad at Bub right now.
I’m not going to be mad unless they punish the Wizards in a way besides taking money directly from Ted Leonsis
Or it has to do with the older generation just bs everyone including our so called leaders and some times the damn truth is needed and it’s actually refreshing
Somehow, podcast equipment has something to do with this…
Insane fucking reach man Americans can’t actually think about anything without relating it to the president
its not just him, and it has been a generation at this point growing up seeing that as the standard. it is a marked shift in decorum and respect for experts from the most influential positions in the country
Your comment reminds me so much of that time Trump said that thing
he’s been the most famous, most important, and most polarizing person in the world’s great cultural exporter for a decade. not sure what you expect
and their read is absolutely right, too
Well he is the leader and representative of our country so not like we can fully ignore him
Or blatant tanking became so prevalent that the league literally changed the rules this year to stop it, but sure, let’s make it political
Por que no los dos?
Everything is political. Corporations basically run our government and have since Citizens United, long before even.
Yes Bub Carrington making a dumb comment is super political! We should definitely talk more about this fascinating insight on the nba subreddit!
There’s a generation of voters coming up whose entire conscious memory of political media and discourse is limited to Trump 1, Biden, and Trump 2. Concerning thought.
You’ll probably get downvoted by people that think that “politics” is something you shove into a drawer until you want to bring it out, but I agree. We’ve created a culture of “say whatever you want” with zero repercussions and an entire generation is going to find out that it doesn’t apply to them in the worst way.
This comment is benign enough to be fine, but more athletes are going to say the shit they shouldn’t be saying and not be good enough to avoid the repercussions.
Couldn’t help but bring politics into this.
It’s every single post in a basketball sub actual cancer
it’s every post on reddit let’s be honest
I don’t think bub carrington is subconsciously ignoring the rules because of the Trump administration. I think the Wizards intentionally tanked and he’s dumb enough to say it out loud. NBA players saying stupid shit on TV isn’t exactly a new phenomenon.
I love your comment. A change is greatly needed.
Nah, what’s wild is the tanking. This is an employee that upset with his employers, and rightfully so.
The idea of tanking breeds a losing mentality and just because these players don’t speak up about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t bother them.
I’m not disagreeing with you.. it’s still something we’re not used to hearing players say.
Tape?
Tape aka video
Adam Silver: “I hear nothing, see nothing”
Something I’ve learned about situations like these is that it can’t hurt to plant a few trees
The best time to yank was 20 games ago.The second best time is now .
I yank every game, personally
Or not plant any trees
I mean Silver literally did a massive overhaul of the lottery from next season specifically because of this. Not sure what you want him to do about past transgressions that were “technically legal”.
We just spent the last 8 months or so fantasizing about the Clippers punishment only for it to be very severe. There’s gotta be a pause on these Adam Silver made up scenario jokes for a while.
“The Indiana pacers have been fined 300k”
He’ll hear it when it’s the gambling companies calling him up pissed off they’ve got a player basically admitting to fixing games.
Breaking: Adam Silver just fined the jazz and pacers another 500k each
DAMN
tough but fair
“That’s weird, I wonder what all these missed calls from our PR manager are about.”
It’s wild that a player is admitting to this. I always figured tanking was more of an organizational decision with roster construction. It’s kinda hard to believe a player would hold back in the NBA so his team can draft someone.
i mean the jazz was telling players to go get surgery so they didn’t have to play them
Nurkic got a nose job lol.
He did??? wtf no dude not a good look lol
So funny when that was reported
Yeah but that is the more ethical way. If you’re having a down/retooling season let’s not make your established players burn themselves out for nothing. If they have anything medically that needs to be done eventually just do it now. That way the younger players on the court can try their best and probably still loose.
A lot of players probably have some minor ailments that can be improved with surgery
by the end of the season the jazz weren’t even close to ethical, they’d bench their starters in games they were winning. There were clips showing Markennen and JJJ sitting on the bench basically saying, “what the fuck are we even doing?”
Yeah I didn’t mean the Jazz was tanking ethically. Just that doing a surgery you’ll need to do eventually during a tanking season might be a “lesser of two evils”-situation. Like, we aren’t actively tanking but our good player needs to sit out a while. Ideally they get healthy by the time the team is ready to compete and everyone is happy.
That is easier to swallow than just straight up hearing the players say they weren’t trying to win games. That just sucks for everyone. Why bother watching those teams at that point?
absolutely but as a player you have to know that you are only doing it now to tank
Fixing your body is worse than straight up giving up on the court?
Mark Cuban got fined the year of the Luka draft because he was publicly talking about how he had dinner with a bunch of his players and explained to them that they needed to lose.
I don’t think he means that the players were trying to hold back. Nor did it seem that way in season. But I do think it’s gotta be really hard to maintain your energy in that environment. So in a way I can see how that leads to naturally not pushing to be your best. If that’s true of Bub, who has played every game both seasons of his career, it’s certainly not true of other members of the young core.
To take a pretty charitable interpretation, I think you can still try to win while the organisation puts you in a position to lose in the short term. Things like squad rotations, defensive assignments and injury management are going to look pretty different between a team that is trying to win now and a team that is looking to win later, even before you get into the dark arts of more explicit tanking.
I think it’s certainly possible to spin this along the lines of “I wasn’t saying we weren’t putting in effort, but that the organisation encouraged us to do focus our effort on things that would improve our future development, even if that wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard”
It seems more like he’s saying they weren’t put in a position to win, not saying they were told to not play well.
They specifically targeted guys who weren’t going to play the rest of the year in trades and had 21 different people take over 5 shots per game. As damning as that is, I don’t ever feel like I saw them intentionally dogging it.
I think he is just making excuses.
He said “we were held back,” so he’s implying someone other than the players were holding the players back.
I don’t think he was saying they were told to hold back or not try to win, just that they were not put into position to perform their best and win.
This could be rotations, it could be play calling, it could be telling guys to work on things during the game that are not their strengths, etc.
Lots of ways to hold players back without making the player hold back.
Uhhh should u be saying that out loud?
Once upon a time the league didn’t want to be partnered with gambling.
So I expect real soon they are just gonna give up trying to hide their tanking ways too.
Always been gambling in NBA, even refs, and always been tanking.
I think changing the draft was them openly admitting to tanking.
The previous draft lottery was perfectly fine if every nba front office was genuinely trying to win as many games as possible.
If every team was trying to win as many games as possible, it means every team isn’t trying its hardest to win a championship.
If you set up an incentive system where it is better for some teams to lose, you can’t be upset or surprised when some teams try to lose.
Changing the draft was just trying to align the incentives to what you want teams to try to do.
The whole point of sports is to provide a set of rules and then each team tries to win using those rules. I hate when teams are expected to do the suboptimal thing just because the rules are poorly designed.
It’s like when people got mad at Suarez for the handball in the World Cup… like, he did the one thing he could that gave them a chance to win. Why is that bad? If you don’t want someone to do something in a sport, make the rules such that it is better not to do it.
You play to win the championship, and sometimes the best way to do that is to lose a particular game… or at least it was. Now, that is a little less so.
They were starting Anthony Gill man, they were not trying to hide shit. Trust me the NBA knows what the teams were doing and dont need some confesion. There is a reason they changed the draft lottery rules
It’s amazing how people always find a way to make things about gambling
elephants standing in your living room are difficult to avoid
such an incredibly odd thing to dominate people’s thoughts at all times
100% yes he should say it. Players are trying to earn big contracts, and if they dont play to full potential, the wont get as good offers.
He needs ppl to know that he was not at his full potential bc of team culture factors as opposed to a person problem.
Imagine he gets a worse penalty than Kawhi lol
“That’s no secret” says the man after divulging something his bosses definitely wish was kept a secret
It’s not a secret though, I’m sure something they would rather not have him say out loud but everyone knew they were tanking lol
Yeah I think we could use more truth in this world
My gen is full of ppl who can’t keep their mouth shut
Bub about to get a stern talking to.
A Silver* talking to
The perfect comment doesn’t exi….
I know don’t these guys get media training in college already
I’m sure this is some trolling attempt but it’s literally common sense to shut up ab stuff like this. Tampering is a thing and if you employed by the nba then you should definitely know that
Nah thank god they just saying it. Plenty of old heads woulda been honest about this too.
Shouldn’t be common sense to silently support this kinda stuff
So snitch on the team that’s employing you? I love how you people think
I mean he’s telling the truth about something everyone knows about already? Isn’t it a good thing that we are seeing someone speak out about it?
Maybe someone not actively on the roster. How does that help him? Getting aj helps them become a better team which will be more beneficial to his career
It’s kind of all generations though. Just look at boomers, they don’t ever shut the fuck up. Like ever.
i know reddit’s the millenial social media hub in general so let me just say: we don’t ever shut the fuck up either lmao
People need to stick to one story about Gen Z
One day it’s they talk too openly
Another day it’s they don’t talk to anyone. Don’t socialize. Or the Gen Z stare
Millennials are doing Gen Z what boomers were doing to us that we hated
Let the kids live.
I’ve heard enough. Take two more first round picks from Clippers
Thank you for making my week and starting the month strong for me. I needed this laugh.
nah this joke works for everton but not the clippers
I was not joking. I want them ships to sink
fair nuff i can respect that
Strip some picks! Dude, the first rule of tanking …
Doesn’t matter now
What doesn’t matter? Because losing draft pick would definitely matter.
Dont act like that team is championship ready 😂
Can’t stop Baltimore Bub from being real at all times.
Cut that cut that cut that.
Lmaooo this is so hilarious to say out loud. Please don’t punish this man 😂
Bro is getting called into the GMs office tomorrow
I’d imagine he would love to be traded. This might just be a great move by him
If he is on any other team he would be out of the NBA (or on a two-way).
Lakers could use him 🤷♂️
they’re not going to trade him for this, but he’ll get a talking-to for sure.
Tanking is a hell of a drug.
See, I never just tank just to tank. What am I gonna do, just tank my team all over Adam Silver’s couch, like it’s something to do. Come on, I got a little more sense than that.
Yeah, I remember tankin’ my team all over the NBA’s couch…
babys first fine
Bub we didn’t think you needed to be told to try your best
Surprised it took scrolling down this far to find this comment… Everybody’s saying “you can’t say that” about the tanking, but did he just admit he has to be told to be the best version of himself? The greats always had elite self-regulation, nobody had to tell them to be the best version of themselves
Sounds like he was told not to
Does the NBA not provide media training? This is crazy even if true.
Adam, hear this shit?!? Send AJ to team who actually sucked and tanked ethically. My Nets
Agreed. The Nets were free-range, artisanal ass. The Wizards were processed ass.
Man, give us credit. We could have tried and you wouldn’t tell the difference.
Do the Wizards have no PR team?
What the f*ck is going on. You guys have a brand to uphold.
what brand
Elton Brand.
paint beast
Do you think there are Wizards fans out there who are shocked to learn that the team has been intentionally tanking?
They were trying to convince everyone that they were ”ethically tanking”
This guy posted the fake AD Duren trade post yesterday. He hates the Wizards lol.
that’s funny as fuck
Who tf would hate the Wizards and why?
lmao at all the pearl-clutching about building teams “organically” through the draft
He’s about to be traded to Siberia!
Somebody please check on Adam Silver. 😭
Frothing at the mouth as we speak.
The NBA needs relegation and promotions.
Bub, c’mon now that’s not the reason why we’ve been bad…
We have heard stories about players getting pulled out early during winnable games. There’s that one Jeremy Lin interview that explains it very well.
No offense but Bub was not getting pulled.
Cus he sucked
Who on the team didn’t? Who were they pulling?
Bub, please stfu
This man’s whole comment is off the rails. WTF??
Idk this is kinda refreshing to hear some honesty around it
“Nah trust me bro we weren’t trying. We’re gonna win 30 games this year.”
-Bub Carrington
Pablo Torre needs to find out
I don’t think it takes an investigative journalist to find that the Wiz were tanking.
I love the Wizarda!
hes gonna get an exploding lav mic for his next interview
Cheers from Tel Aviv
Dude you can’t say that stuff when you’re still on the team
You’re not supposed to say it out loud
they did not let Bam Adebayo drop 83 on them because they were tanking. they were just trash
Yeah I’m sure when 6’4” bub was left in isolation vs bam it’s because we were trying to win
If being held back meant being held back from the 13th seed, sure 😂
Umm i dont think he was supposed to say that lmao 😂
Interviewer saw the opportunity there and locked in 😂
IQ of these younger gen players seems to be getting lower and lower 😂 why would you say that out loud
Its weird how all these comments are calling him stupid for telling the truth and not the team for breaking the rules (and the nba for not enforcing this “rule”)
Frankly I don’t even understand what the big deal is. Like he said, it’s no secret to anyone that the wizards along with many other teams have been intentionally sitting stars and tanking to get better picks. How does saying the extremely obvious quiet part out loud change anything?
This is a bit different though. Its not just resting stars but it implies even the lower level players who were playing were told to play with lower effort, which affects the integrity of the game
It changes because they had plausible deniability. You can’t lose on purpose, that flirts with federal statutes
Very much a joker moment. Brazenly tank for a whole year and no one bats an eye. One player doesnt play coy and everyone loses their mind.
The Nba fixed it this offseason by punishing tanking though. Can’t really go back in time, same for the Spurs gm saying on camera they were tanking for wemby
Yep just like that no teams are ever going to tank again. Thanks Adam silver!
Doesn’t seem weird to me. Two things can be true. Not understanding (or not respecting) the clandestine dynamic of the situation does suggest 1 or more of idiocy and indifference
Because he wants everyone to know he is a higher level player then he showed. The team is secondary .
If you listen close you can hear Adam hurdling through the air towards this interview
This is why they changed tanking
Holy shit this is honestly an insane thing to come out and say. He makes it seem like there were expectations from the organization to lose. I didn’t think the tanking went that far tbh
Let’s be real the fact that he actually said that puts a bullseye on the Wizards and likely doesn’t go over well in the FO
This is one of the most air brained quotes I’ve seen from an athlete 😭 bro just laid it all out like the whole league was in on it too the NBA might actually assassinate this man
Pablo not needed on this one
Wizards are holding steadfast in their desire to have a golden anniversary of their last 50 win season in a couple of years.
I love this honesty. Shackle free wild choice of words though
If you like chaos yeah… I’d be asking if he cared to elaborate
The NBA incentivized losing and then gets made when you lose on purpose. Tanking wasn’t invented last season.
he’s about to be sent to CBL
No seconds for you!! We have to save money for the new guy!!