NBA Fines Mavs $750K; Mark Cuban to Match with Charity Donation
The NBA announced on Friday that the Dallas Mavericks have been fined $750,000 for “conduct detrimental to the league” following last weekend’s transparent tanking of the final two games of the regular season.
"The Dallas Mavericks' decision to restrict key players from fully participating in an elimination game last Friday against Chicago undermined the integrity of our sport," NBA Executive Vice President and Head of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars said in an official statement.
"The Mavericks' actions failed our fans and our league."
Before last Friday’s game against the Chicago Bulls, the Mavs still had a mathematical chance of making the NBA’s play-in tournament. Instead of pushing for the No. 10 seed, though, Dallas opted to rest Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and several other key players in order to enhance their chances of retaining a top-10 pick in this year’s draft.
The obvious last-second tank job by the Mavs drew the ire of many around the league, although many other teams had arguably been doing more egregious tanking over the final two months of the season without any public outrage to show for it.
The $750,000 is a hefty fine, but it’s also a drop in the bucket for Mavs owner Mark Cuban, who confirmed to DallasBasketball.com on Friday evening that he is planning match the fine with a charity donation.
In 2018, the Mavs were fined $600,000 for essentially the same thing, so maybe they’re chalking up the extra $150,000 to inflation.
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