The Mavs Were Fined $750,000 For Sitting Everyone Against The Bulls To Tank Out Of The Play-In

The Dallas Mavericks turned heads in the final week of the regular season when they completely punted on their chase of the Play-In by sitting everyone against the Chicago Bulls in the second-to-last game of the year. Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber, and Josh Green all sat for rest and various ailments, while Luka Doncic started but sat after the first quarter in a premeditated move that Jason Kidd openly explained in pregame was at the direction of management — with the only reason Luka played in the game at all being that it was a Slovenian heritage night promotion in Dallas.

The NBA, unsurprisingly, didn’t take kindly to that and launched an investigation into the Mavs actively tanking out of the Play-In in such dramatic style. The Luka Doncic part, in particular, was extremely brash and Kidd’s pregame remarks certainly didn’t help the Mavs’ case. As such, on Friday, the league announced a $750,000 fine to the organization for “conduct detrimental to the league,” explaining what they did “undermined the integrity of our sport.”

The Mavs certainly weren’t the only team to do some aggressive end-of-season tanking, as the Blazers pulled the ripcord with about a month to play and managed to bottom out to a bottom-five record in the entire league. The Jazz also began resting people in the final couple weeks when they slipped behind the Thunder and Mavs in the battle for the 10-seed. The Mavs will certainly point to those example and wonder why they were punished, but they attracted the league’s attention for a couple of unique reasons.

For one, Kidd’s commentary before the game raised everyone’s eyebrows, as he laid out how it was management’s decision to shut things down for the season — something none of the other teams did explicitly, instead relying on various injuries and ailments to sit players. On top of that, the Mavs were just a couple weeks removed from calling the league’s integrity into question with their protest of the outcome of a loss to the Warriors, when Mark Cuban launched into his latest tirade against NBA referees for what was ultimately deemed to have been a correct call that was communicated to both sides upon league review. While the league certainly would never admit it, I find it hard to believe this wasn’t at least in some small part a message to Cuban following the protest to replay that game and his antics afterward. In any case, Cuban will pay the hefty fine and won’t exactly be hurting in doing so.