Matt Ishbia did not mince words. Not even a little.
The Suns owner unloaded on tanking in a social media post, calling it embarrassing, corrosive, and damaging to the league’s integrity. He did not dress it up as strategy. He labeled it for what he believes it is.
“This is ridiculous,” Ishbia wrote. “Tanking is losing behavior done by losers. Purposely losing is something nobody should want to be associated with.”
Ishbia drew a sharp line between being bad and trying to lose.
“If you are a bad team, you get a good pick. That makes sense,” he wrote. “But purposely shutting down players and purposely losing games is a disgrace.”
He went further, comparing it unfavorably to betting scandals and accusing teams of strategically throwing games. Ishbia argued it hurts fans who pay for tickets and punishes teams actually competing for playoff spots.
He did not offer a fix. He did point the spotlight.
Tanking has been around for years, but this season has pushed patience. Entire chunks of the league seemed to pivot toward draft positioning well before the All-Star break, and the problem has become harder to ignore.
Commissioner Adam Silver has tried to curb it. Flattened lottery odds. The Play-In tournament. Each helped on the margins. None solved it.
Ishbia still expressed confidence Silver will.
“Awful behavior that Adam Silver and the NBA will need to stop with massive changes,” he wrote. “And I have complete confidence that with his leadership, he will fix it.”
That confidence may be debated. The frustration is not. And this time, it came from an owner who clearly isn’t interested in whispering.
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