Does the NBA have an integrity problem? A strong majority of its players don’t think so, but they also see a troubling trend developing of issues that could damage the league’s reputation if they aren’t addressed.
In our latest installment of The Athletic’s anonymous player poll, we asked more than 150 players if the league’s biggest controversies this season — gambling, tanking and accusations that the LA Clippers circumvented the salary cap with Kawhi Leonard — called the NBA’s integrity into question.
We also asked specifically about “tanking,” or executives and coaches rigging lineups, rotations and player availability to give their teams the best chance to lose to improve their draft status, and we asked what the players would change about the NBA if they could have commissioner Adam Silver’s job.
Nearly 75 percent of respondents said the league’s integrity was not in danger; about 72 percent said “tanking” was either a “little problem” or not one at all; and far more players would rather see the NBA eliminate games on consecutive nights, reduce the regular season from its long-held 82-game schedule or change the rules to allow for more defense, than do something about gambling, tanking or the Clippers.
“The league is actively trying to be better,” said one player, acknowledging the serious issues facing the NBA. “If you have an integrity problem, you just don’t care.”
Training camps were still a couple of weeks away in September when the Clippers were accused of cheating by arranging a lucrative no-show job with a team sponsor for Leonard so he could be paid outside the salary cap. The Clippers insist they are innocent, and the league’s investigation is ongoing.
On the morning of Day 3 of the regular season, sweeping federal gambling charges were announced against Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA assistant coach Damon Jones. In a dramatic scene at the courthouse in Brooklyn, Justice Department officials, including FBI director Kash Patel, laid out allegations of Billups and Jones rigging poker games with gangsters, Rozier intentionally removing himself from a game to win bets, and Jones selling inside information on star Lakers players to gamblers so they could win money. Jones pleaded guilty to the charges. Billups missed the entire season, as did Rozier, who was released by the Heat. The NBA reopened its gambling investigations to see what it missed and changed injury reporting rules for teams to provide more clarity, earlier in the day, as to who will play each night.
The dominant topic of discussion in the league over the last three months has been tanking. The NBA fined two teams and investigated at least one more for doing it, and it is nearing dramatic rule changes to disincentivize losing games for better draft picks.
The Athletic’s poll was conducted before the Heat released Rozier and Jones pleaded guilty in the gambling cases, and before the league unveiled its latest anti-tanking measures. As always, we granted the players anonymity to give them the freedom to answer honestly, without fear of reprisals from opponents, teammates or fans. For transparency and context, we’ll tell you how many people responded to each topic.
Is the integrity of the game in danger?
An informal analysis of the answers to this question came down to the players collectively saying, “No, but…”
“I don’t think we have an integrity issue,” one player said. “It’s almost like it’s the beginning of possible issues that could happen because of gambling. It’s getting more negative attention that could affect the purity of the game.
“The purists, we just want to play.”
To be clear, the NBA didn’t legalize gambling — the U.S. Supreme Court did, essentially, by ruling that it was up to each state to allow (or not) sports betting within its borders. Thirty-nine states, plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, have taken the high court up on its offer.
But in the aftermath of that 2018 Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for widespread legal betting, the NBA (and other major pro sports) eagerly pursued partnerships with sportsbooks so the league could make money off bets placed on its games. The coziness between the league and the sports books, and the proliferation of betting among fans, is what the players feel — and they see it as a problem.
“They have to do something with gambling,” one player said. “If they don’t, the league is in trouble.”
“The gambling with social media is a dangerous combination — it has too much of an impact on the game,” said another.
A third player said, “We go out, and I can hear a fan say, ‘Please get 11 points,’ you know what I’m saying? I just feel like that’s (messed) the game up a little bit.”
Gambling was, by far, the reason most often cited by players who said the NBA’s integrity was in danger, or suggested that it could be if changes weren’t made.
All season long, players in all 30 locker rooms have loathed offering takes in either direction on one of their colleagues (Leonard) and his off-court earning opportunities. Leonard, like the Clippers, has insisted there is no wrongdoing.
“I don’t think the (NBA’s) integrity is in danger; I think it’s just a lot of new stuff people are taking advantage of,” said one player, offering a broader answer than simply “betting” as the thing that could trip up the league. “It’s just like college with NIL starting. You don’t have specific rules until someone tries to alter or break them, and then you find more reasons to implement different rules.”
Another player said any serious issues facing the NBA are overshadowed by the talent coursing through the league.
“I really feel like with the Wembys and Lukas and even still LeBron, they drove so much attention that even now some people like myself forgot that most of that stuff even happened,” the player said. “But it still happened. I didn’t ignore it, but I don’t think the integrity of the game is at stake.”
Players had strong feelings about tanking, too.
How much of a problem is tanking?
It’s an issue on every player’s radar because, no matter which team he plays for, he is going to play in games where one franchise would prefer to lose for the betterment of its future.
In casual conversation among fans and reporters, “teams” are accused of tanking. But the players on the court could not care less about future draft positions. They’re trying to win or play well enough to earn a larger contract or new opportunity with a different team — the kind of effort that can lead to winning.
“Tanking” is about making sure a team’s best players are simply not available to help them win.
“I’m salty on this one, I think the league needs to do something about it,” one player said.
“It is very terrible,” said another. “I’ve seen some things where people say it’s … a tournament for teams that are in last place.”
Another player said tanking “kills the league. You shouldn’t be rewarded for losing.”
Well, Silver, with input from league executives, is working to take those rewards away by expanding the draft lottery, flattening odds of securing the top pick and punishing teams in the draft that are consistently bad from season to season.
But the practice of sandbagging for a season or two to build through the draft is not exactly new in the NBA. For instance, the San Antonio Spurs, a model franchise by most standards, were widely accused of tanking the 1996-97 season, resulting in a chance to draft Tim Duncan. They won 56 games in Duncan’s rookie year and reached the playoffs 22 years in a row with five titles, and then were accused of “tanking” in 2022-23 to land French sensation Victor Wembanyama. Look how that’s gone.
There are plenty of other examples. The difference, perhaps, was the egregiousness of what teams did this season, from making trades for stars and stashing them away while they lost, to pulling key players from games in February — with months left in the season.
“It’s kind of gone on forever, and the league’s been fine,” one player said.
“It’s cool if (other teams) tank because (they’re) just giving us free games right now,” another player said. “I feel like it’s not good for the game of basketball, but I feel like with tanking, you get individual opportunities that necessarily wouldn’t have been opportunities if you’re trying to win. And I think that’s huge.”
One player called tanking a “tiny problem” and reminded us that it doesn’t always work.
“The Mavericks got the No. 1 pick last year,” he said, referring to Dallas overcoming a 1.8 percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick and leapfrogging 10 teams that were all worse than it.
If you were commissioner for a day, with broad power to push through any change, what change would you make to the league?
NBA players want to play less, and less often during the week, with more opportunities to bludgeon their opponents on defense and more teams to play against.
Or something like that.
“The easy answer is less games, but I would say that’s a half-answer because I don’t know how we make the money up,” said a player who was willing to address the obvious problem created by reducing the number of regular-season games.
The NBA’s financial structure is built on the idea that each team will play 82 games during the regular season. Reducing that number should, ostensibly, mean less money for everyone, or the reopening of the league’s lucrative TV contracts and the collective bargaining agreement with players, to address the domino effect of shrinking the season.
The reason typically stated for reducing the NBA schedule is the uptick in injuries, especially to star players, as the pace of play has increased. Less wear and tear could, in theory, mean more of the game’s top players are available to play in more games.
“I’d like to take out 10 games, like (Warriors coach Steve) Kerr said,” one player said, echoing a common sentiment that was, in fact, driven by Kerr in his public comments this season. “That’s smart.”
Getting rid of games on consecutive nights makes sense as a goal for players, because of the same wear-and-tear concerns as well as the brutal travel schedules of having to play in a different city less than 24 hours after a previous night’s game ends — even with the amenities of modern NBA travel.
As for rule changes to aid the defense, some of what the players asked for included more lenient rules for using their hands while defending. Some were about rim protection — allowing defenders to take the ball off the rim as they do under FIBA rules.
“I would make defense legal again,” one player said. “Let basketball be basketball. Let’s tilt it one way, because that’s what we think people want to see. Let’s just let basketball be basketball. It’s a beautiful game.”
“I’d make the game a little bit more physical,” another player said. “A lot of the foul baiting stuff and everything wouldn’t really be as useful.”
Not surprisingly, players wanted referees to face the same scrutiny they feel they face.
“Players can get criticized; referees should too if they have a bad game,” said one player, offering one of the milder ideas players had for penalizing the refs.
Hypothetically putting the players in Silver’s chair can, and often does, elicit creative, fun responses that steer clear of the doom and gloom of legitimate problems facing the league.
One player who called for a 4-point line said, “It would have to be pretty far. It would have to be — you know those stripes above the 3-point line? It would have to be stuck around there.
A player calling for a shorter shot clock (teams get 24 seconds to shoot each possession in NBA games) said record highs in scoring would soar even higher. “You change the clock to 20 (seconds) or 18, games would be at like, 175 to 200 (points). I play 2K a lot. They got the rule changes, and there’s a bunch of them, and my favorite one on 2K is to decrease the shot clock.
“And then people are like, bro, scores are 180-160.”
One player wants to outlaw all foul shots until there are fewer than four minutes left in the fourth quarter. Another wanted to ease customs restrictions going into and out of Canada (yeah, that’s not up to Silver). One player suggested year-long suspensions for flopping.
Oh, and one player said, “Bring Magic City Night back.”
We’ll show ourselves out.