NEW YORK _ A Knicks player sat at his locker March 19 with his eyes fixed on the TV. He was watching a tape of that night's opponent. But some of the players he saw would not be at that night's game.
The Bulls left three of their top players _ Zach LaVine, Lauri Markannen and Kris Dunn _ in Chicago. It didn't appear that the Bulls came to Madison Square Garden to win that night, prompting the Knick to ask, "How can they do that? Will the NBA fine them?"
There was no punishment from the NBA because the Bulls listed each player as injured. Veteran Robin Lopez was healthy, but he didn't play, leaving a squad of young, unproven players to take on the Knicks, who were a half-game ahead of Chicago in the standings.
The Knicks won the game, 110-92, and the Bulls held onto their position as the NBA's eighth-worst team.
Throughout the league, the Bulls' motive was clear. It's a common and accepted practice in the NBA known as tanking _ not putting your best team on the floor in hopes of getting the best draft pick possible. And Chicago is far from alone in doing it.
Tanking is a taboo subject. Most NBA players, coaches and front office personnel refuse to publicly acknowledge that it's going on.
Jeff Van Gundy, the former Knicks and Rockets coach who is now ABC's lead analyst, has strong feelings about the topic and says the integrity of the league is at stake if teams aren't trying to win.
"It's become accepted practice that they don't try to win," Van Gundy said. "If you're not trying to win, you're trying to lose. And if you're trying to lose, to me, it's a scandal. But it's not seen as a scandal by most. To me it is."
One of the biggest issues facing the league is that it can't prove teams are not trying to win. The term "developing young players" has become a euphemism for tanking.
Teams are choosing to sit veterans in favor of young players who may or may not be part of the team's future to get as many Ping-Pong ball combinations in the NBA draft lottery as possible.
Regardless of what it's called, people around the game know a team that's tanking when they see one, and Van Gundy says not enough people are concerned about it.
"There's no media outcry," Van Gundy said. "There's no NBA outcry. There's no fan outcry. If we're saying it's OK, and we are, from the league, to the teams, to the media, to the fans, no one's holding anyone accountable other than to give them praise for doing it. It's not going to change because no one wants it to change."
The Sacramento Kings announced in January they would sit at least two veterans per game to give their young players more minutes.
The Atlanta Hawks played their last game before the All-Star break without three starters. Dennis Schroder (back), Ersan Ilyasova (shoulder) and Kent Bazemore (rest) didn't face the Pistons, a team Atlanta beat a few days earlier. All three played the night before, but resting players before a weeklong break raised red flags. The Hawks lost the game.
Bulls executive vice president John Paxson said after the All-Star break that for "blocks of games," they would give more minutes to younger players and significantly decrease those of Lopez and Justin Holiday.
The Knicks sat Jarrett Jack after the All-Star break and have gone with a young trio of guards to develop and evaluate.
The last-place Phoenix Suns have played veteran center and leading rebounder Tyson Chandler just five times since Feb. 7. He was shut down last season for the final 25 games.
Grizzlies center Marc Gasol expressed his frustration during Memphis' 19-game losing streak, saying the G League, not the NBA, is for developing players. Knicks center Enes Kanter has said similar things this season.
"It's just accepted," Van Gundy said. "They've rebranded it from 'tanking' to 'We're playing our young players to try to rebuild.' They're not really playing their younger players in a rebuilding effort necessarily. They're trying to play their younger players so that they lose, so that they can get better young players than the ones they have."
