Michael Porter Jr.'s Tanking Comments May Not Sit Well with Some Nets Fans

Tanking has become such an epidemic in the NBA.

Some bottom-feeding teams have oddly sat their players out at various times this season, but faced repercussions.

The Utah Jazz were fined $500,000 for sitting out its top players in the fourth quarter of a game, and the Indiana Pacers were fined $100,000 for sitting healthy starters.

The Brooklyn Nets have "ethically" navigated the tank by refusing to sit their main contributors, such as Michael Porter Jr. and Nic Claxton, much to the chagrin of many Nets fans, despite the team being well-positioned to finish with a bottom-three record with 17 games left in the regular season.

If those Nets fans were hoping to have one outspoken voice on their side, they're going to have to think again.

“They gotta do something about this tanking situation," Porter said on the Emily Austin Show. "I don’t like how teams are deliberately trying to tank to get a good draft pick. I just think that throwing full NBA seasons down the drain is not the way to go. It’s not very ethical to the game. People pay a lot of money to watch the best players in the world compete, and you want to see teams competing to their fullest ability every single night, and when teams do the stuff that they are doing nowadays, it can be tough.

“I understand for teams rebuilding, but I think there’s an ethical way to do it and a non-ethical way. So hopefully they can change it. I just feel like the best players should be on the floor night to night.”

Getting the first pick gives you the best chance of drafting a generational superstar. such as LeBron James or Victor Wembanyama. However, you could end up with a complete bust like Anthony Bennett at that spot.

"The thing is, you may tank for a whole season, and you might not even get the draft pick that you want," Porter said. "Even if you get the draft pick that you want, that player might not pan out to what you thought he would pan out to. And now, you just set your program back, years and years and years."

Porter's sentiments about wanting teams to ethically compete night in and night out are valid, but at the same time, not every team has the luxury of playing in a big market or means of acquiring game-changing talent without bottoming out for a chance to get the first pick in the draft.