Suns legends weigh in on tanking, 'You fixed the (expletive) game'

As has been the case for the bulk of recent NBA history, tanking is back to the forefront of league-wide discussions, arguments and possible solutions.

Those talks are back as the Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards and Dallas Mavericks, among others, all engage in various degrees of strategizing to angle for better draft lottery odds by season’s end.

The Jazz acquired former Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. from the Memphis Grizzlies ahead of the trade deadline for a package that included three first-round picks. They promptly shut JJJ down for the remainder of the season due to knee surgery.

For the Wizards, trade acquisitions in Trae Young and Anthony Davis have yet to play a minute in Washington as they deal with their own injuries.

Dallas, meanwhile, announced that star point guard Kyrie Irving will sit out the remainder of the season as he continues to recover from surgery to repair a torn ACL.

All of those teams are incentivized to lose as many games as possible the rest of the way. They’re not in the playoff hunt and are now focused on improving their odds at landing one of Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa or Cameron Boozer in this year’s draft.

Winning is detrimental to the immediate futures of those franchises, which is why the league is once again looking at solutions to address tanking that now includes shutting down players dealing with various injuries.

Suns legends Charles Barkley and Raja Bell recently gave their opinions on the latest NBA tanking trend, lamenting what it means for fans and the integrity of the sport overall.

Charles Barkley, Raja Bell weigh in on NBA tanking problem

“The elephant in the room is this tanking situation we got going on in the NBA,” Barkley said on “Inside the NBA.” “You see what they’re doing in Utah, you see what they’re doing in D.C. Now you’ve got the Mavs sort of tanking. First of all, tanking has always been part of the NBA, let’s get that out of the way. We’ve got to come up with some type of solution because it’s not fair to the game first and foremost.”

Barkley went on to make the intriguing argument that NBA teams should no longer be allowed to raise their ticket prices if they finish below .500 in terms of winning percentage. “Inside” host Ernie Johnson responded with “that would be interesting, Chuckster,” noting that hitting NBA owners in the wallet would certainly provide incentive to avoid losing seasons.

The former league MVP with the Suns added that lottery odds should be identical for every team in the lottery, shifting the outlook to pure luck for teams that miss out on the playoffs.

“The team that has the worst record, I think, has only got the number one pick, like, two out of 25 years. So, give everybody one ping pong ball if you don’t make the playoffs,” he said.

Finally, “The Round Mound of Rebound” suggested doing away with protections for draft picks that teams trade away, making it riskier to trade draft picks.

Meanwhile, former Suns sharpshooting guard Raja Bell weighed in via The Ringer’s “Real Ones” podcast, and he did not pull any punches.

“The best feelings I ever had were winning games I wasn’t supposed to win,” Bell said of his playing days. He elaborated that some of the best moments he had as a player were going into another team’s building as a clear underdog and figuring out a way to turn the narrative on its head and win those matchups.

But with tanking again at the forefront, teams don’t even seem to be pretending to compete in those scenarios.

“When you start meddling in that, and fixing games if you will … because that’s what you’re doing. You fixed the (expletive) game,” Bell said. “Don’t meddle with that, man.”

Bell said the league has to “clean up” the optics of tanking for younger generations who aspire to be part of the NBA some day.

“I am a true lover of sport, and a true lover of what sport can mean to young people in terms of teaching them life lessons,” Bell said. He made the argument that competition needs to set the example for the youth even transcending sports.

“I’m asking you as a league, whatever it is, figure out a way to protect that (integrity of the game), because that’s important,” he said. “Otherwise we’re living in the WWE.”

With legalized sports gambling now partnering with the NBA as it permeates more of society, commissioner Adam Silver will be even more under the microscope for how he addresses league-wide integrity moving forward.

It's an unenviable task, but both Barkley and Bell want to see action. The fans do, too.