Why NBA is investigating Dallas Mavericks’ decision-making in game against Chicago Bulls

The Dallas Mavericks are being investigated by the National Basketball Association (NBA) for allegedly tanking an 11-point third-quarter lead against the Chicago Bulls on Friday.

Dallas’ decision to sit Kyrie Irving for the whole game and Luka Doncic for most of it aroused the suspicion of the NBA. It is alleged that Dallas threw away the 11-point lead deliberately to tank the game and not qualify for the play-in tournament.

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“The NBA commenced an investigation today into the facts and circumstances surrounding the Dallas Mavericks’ roster decisions and game conduct with respect to last night’s Chicago Bulls-Mavericks game, including the motivations behind those actions,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said.

What is tanking?

Tanking is a strategy used by some NBA teams where they bench star players and play with youth players instead, to deliberately lose matches, especially towards the end of the season. They do it to improve their odds of landing a high lottery pick in the upcoming draft.

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At the beginning of the ongoing season, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued a statement saying that the league will not tolerate any obvious attempt at tanking.

“I know that many of our NBA teams are salivating at the notion that potentially through our lottery that they could get (Wembanyama), so they should all still compete very hard next season,” Silver said in October.

What penalty will Dallas Mavericks face?

As the matter is currently under investigation, it is not clear what penalty Dallas will face if the NBA concludes that they deliberately tanked against Chicago. However, based on previous instances, penalties for tanking usually come in the form of fines.

In fact, in February 2018, the NBA fined Dallas owner Mark Cuban $600,000 for comments about tanking during a podcast.