After decades of hundreds and hundreds of NBA teams constantly pumping the brakes and tanking to improve their draft position, the NBA decided to draw a completely arbitrary line in the sand.

After the media suddenly, randomly, and arbitrarily expressed anger and horror over the Jazz rightfully treating last weekend's games like extended exhibition and training to prepare for the future--something many teams have done before--the NBA decided it couldn't let the fury continue and levied its biggest fine ever for conduct detrimental to the league.

Mark Russell Pereira (@markrussell.pereira.bsky.social) tackles this issue, noting that the actual punishment was issued after recording the meat of the show. On either end of that discussion, we discuss Jaren Jackson Jr.'s necessary surgery to remove a benign mass in his knee, and some clever ideas to alleviate tanking issues while explaining why the NBA is so problematic with this issue to begin with.

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