USA TODAY's Sam Amick noted the NBA is watching tanking "more closely than ever," and a memo Commissioner Adam Silver sent to all 30 teams Feb. 21 made it "abundantly clear." The memo read, “Over the past several seasons, discussions about so-called 'tanking' in the NBA have occurred with some frequency, both in the public discourse and within our league, and you as governors have taken steps to address the underlying incentive issues by adopting changes to our draft lottery system that will go into effect next year. ... If we ever received evidence that players or coaches were attempting to lose or otherwise taking steps to cause any game to result otherwise than on its competitive merits, that conduct would be met with the swiftest and harshest response possible from the league office” (USA TODAY, 2/28).
BACK IN ACTION? NBC's Jeremy Roenick said he thinks NHL players will compete in the '22 Beijing Games "because the NHL has such a strong craving to be in China." Roenick: "They’re sending people to China to create leagues, to create programs, to teach the game. So the NHL has, I think, an investment in China. So it wouldn’t surprise me if the NHL reinstitutes players into the Olympics just because it’s in Beijing" (THEATHELTIC.com, 2/28).
CONCERNING TREND: In Boston, Shira Springer wrote the folding in January of the NWSL Breakers "says something about the state of women’s pro sports" in the U.S. The Breakers folding "should sound an alarm." Sports execs "need to do better by female pro athletes -- build better business models, build better support systems for players, build better marketing strategies, build better broadcast opportunities, build better fan bases." Women’s pro sports in the U.S. continually struggles to "generate interest, from prospective owners to sponsors to broadcasters to fans" (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/28).
