Suns' Ishbia rips tanking teams: 'Losing behavior done by losers'

Mat Ishbia is not on Team Tank.

The Phoenix Suns owner strongly rebuked teams attempting to secure a higher draft pick by effectively punting on the 2025-26 season, calling out the practice on X as "behavior done by losers" while commenting on a related column by Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh.

This is ridiculous! Tanking is losing behavior done by losers. Purposely losing is something nobody should want to be associated with. Embarrassing for the league and for the organizations. And the talk about this as a "strategy" is ridiculous.

If you are a bad team, you get a good pick. That makes sense. But purposely shutting down players and purposely losing games is a disgrace and impacts the integrity of whole league.

This is much worse than any prop bet scandal. This is throwing games strategically. Horrible for fans that pay to watch and cheer on their team. And horrible for all the real teams that are competing for playoff spots.

Awful behavior that Adam Silver and the NBA will need to stop with massive changes, and I have complete confidence that with his leadership, he will fix it. Those of us in a position of influence need to speak out… the only "strategy" is doing right by fans, players, and the NBA community.

Ishbia did not name specific teams. However, the NBA issued substantial fines to the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers ahead of the All-Star break for personnel decisions that undermined "the foundation of NBA competition," according to commissioner Adam Silver.

Utah, which received a $500,000 fine, held forwards Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. out for consecutive fourth quarters against the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat despite the two being "able to continue" in both, per the league. The Pacers were dinged $100,000 after an independent review ruled Pascal Siakam and two other starters should not have been held out in a loss to the Jazz on Feb. 3.

The Jazz lost to Orlando but defeated Miami, a point Jazz owner Ryan Smith raised in response to the league's statement.

Neither the Jazz nor the Pacers own the worst records in their respective conferences, however.

The 14-39 Washington Wizards sit last in the Eastern Conference by winning percentage despite having one fewer loss than Indiana. The race to the bottom may be even tougher in the West; Utah (18-38) sits third last ahead of both the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings, teams that ostensibly entered the season with playoff hopes (the Pelicans don't even own a first-round pick this year).

The Wizards and Kings don't seem keen to make a late-season push, either. Sacramento announced Wednesday that center Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery for meniscus and hand tendon injuries, respectively. Meanwhile, Wizards debuts for both Trae Young and Anthony Davis still seem far off despite Young last playing for the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 27 and Davis last appearing for the Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 8.

Ishbia's Suns appeared set for a rebuild this past summer when the team traded away Kevin Durant, bought out Bradley Beal, and hired a first-year head coach in Jordan Ott. However, the team has defied expectations, with Devin Booker leading a new-look core to the seventh-best record in the West.

This year's draft class contains several highly touted prospects, headlined by a likely top three of Cameron Boozer (Duke), AJ Dybantsa (BYU), and Darryn Peterson (Kansas).