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NBA to investigate Mavericks over potential tanking

Mark Cuban clapping

May 24, 2022; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban walks on the court before game four of the 2022 Western Conference finals against the Golden State Warriors at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

The NBA is not happy with what it saw from the Dallas Mavericks in Friday’s game against the Chicago Bulls.

League spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement Saturday that the NBA is launching an investigation into the Mavericks’ roster decisions for Friday’s 115-112 loss, “including the motivations behind those actions.”

The Mavericks were rather blatant in their tanking Friday against Chicago. Despite the game being a must-win to keep their play-in hopes alive, Dallas ruled a number of key players out, including guard Kyrie Irving. Luka Doncic started the game, but did not play after the first quarter. The Mavericks would owe their first-round pick to the New York Knicks if it falls outside of the top ten, making this a fairly blatant tanking effort, as the Mavericks viewed keeping the pick as more beneficial than a long-shot bid for one of the final playoff spots in the West.

The Mavericks’ case was not helped when coach Jason Kidd essentially confirmed after the game that owner Mark Cuban and team president Nico Harrison had told him to hold out key players, calling them “decisions that are made from my bosses.”

The Mavericks are far from the only team that could be accused of essentially trying to lose down the stretch for draft position. However, they have by far been the most blatant about it, which likely caught the league’s attention.

It is not clear what the NBA could do if it finds fault in what the Mavericks did, but one would figure Cuban could be getting a pretty significant fine. It does not look great from an organizational standpoint either, which could be a problem from their star player’s perspective.

The post NBA to investigate Mavericks over potential tanking appeared first on Larry Brown Sports.



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