The NBA Finally Cracks The Whip: Pacers And Jazz Pay The Price For The “Race to the Bottom”

It is officially the “Silly Season” in the NBA. You know the time of year I’m talking about. The All-Star break is looming, the trade deadline dust has settled, and half the league is jockeying for playoff positioning while the other half seems to be engaged in a synchronized dive toward the ocean floor of the standings.

We call it tanking. The league calls it “roster management.” But this week, Commissioner Adam Silver decided to call it exactly what it is: a violation of the integrity of the game. And he brought receipts in the form of hefty fines for both the Indiana Pacers and the Utah Jazz.

If you’ve been watching the box scores lately, you might have noticed some peculiar lineups. But the league office isn’t just watching box scores; they are apparently sending in the doctors.

The Pacers Get Slapped on the Wrist for Resting Siakam

Let’s start with the situation in Indianapolis. The Pacers have been handed a $100,000 fine, and honestly, it feels a bit like a speeding ticket for a Ferrari. It’s annoying, but it won’t stop them from driving fast—or in this case, driving off a cliff.

The incident in question dates back to a February 3rd clash against the Utah Jazz (ironically, the other offender in this story). The Pacers decided to sit newly minted All-Star Pascal Siakam, along with two other starters. The official reasoning was likely the standard “soreness” or “injury management” that we see on injury reports every night.

However, the NBA isn’t buying it anymore. The league conducted an investigation, which included a review by an independent physician. The verdict? Siakam and his teammates were healthy enough to play. Even if they needed to play reduced minutes, the medical standard says they should have been on the floor.

It’s a tough look for Indiana. When you trade for a guy like Siakam, you’re selling a promise to your fanbase. Fans pay hard-earned money to see stars. When a family drives two hours to Gainbridge Fieldhouse hoping to see an All-Star perform, only to find out he’s sitting out for “strategic reasons” against another bottom-dweller, it cheats the consumer. The league knows this, and that $100,000 fine is a reminder that the ticket-buying public matters.

The Utah Jazz and the Art of the Fourth-Quarter Fold

If the Pacers’ violation was a misdemeanor, the Utah Jazz committed a felony. The league hammered Utah with a $500,000 fine, and the details are frankly embarrassing for anyone who loves competitive sports.

This wasn’t just about sitting guys before the game. This was about pulling the parachute while the plane was still flying. In two separate games—February 7 against Orlando and February 9 against Miami—the Jazz made roster moves that screamed, “Please, do not let us win this game.”

The league cited the Jazz for removing their best players, Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr., before the start of the fourth quarter. Here is the kicker: the games were still in doubt. The Jazz had a chance to win. Instead of letting their stars close out the game, they glued them to the bench.

That is the definition of overt tanking. It’s one thing to rest a guy because his ankle is acting up. It is entirely another to look at a scoreboard, realize you might accidentally win a game that hurts your draft lottery odds, and sub in the G-League squad to ensure the loss. That $500,000 fine suggests Adam Silver was watching those fourth quarters with his head in his hands.

Why Adam Silver Is Drawing a Line in the Sand

The Commissioner didn’t mince words in the statement released by the league. He explicitly called out behavior that “prioritizes draft position over winning.”

This is the existential crisis the NBA has been fighting for a decade. The incentives are backward. When losing is rewarded with a high draft pick—potentially a franchise-altering superstar—smart front offices will do everything they can to lose. It’s math.

But the NBA is an entertainment product. If the product on the floor is clearly rigged to fail, the integrity of the competition dissolves. “We will respond accordingly to any further actions that compromise the integrity of our games,” Silver warned.

He’s right to be angry. The Jazz and Pacers are currently sitting at 18-37 and 15-40 in the NBA, respectively. They are in the basement. Everyone knows what they are doing. But there is a gentleman’s agreement in sports: you can build a bad roster, but the guys on the floor have to try to win. When management steps in to sabotage a winnable game in the fourth quarter, that line is crossed.

What This Means for the Rest of the Season

Will these fines stop tanking? Absolutely not. A combined $600,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to the potential revenue generated by drafting the next generational superstar.

However, it might force teams to be a little less obvious about it. We might see fewer “healthy scratches” and more “generalized soreness” that is harder for independent doctors to disprove. We might see stars play the first half to sell popcorn and sit the second half to secure the loss.

But for now, the message has been sent. The NBA is watching, and they are tired of teams making a mockery of the regular season. For the fans in Utah and Indiana, let’s hope the product on the floor improves—or at the very least, that the guys being paid millions to play basketball are actually allowed to play.