The Brooklyn Nets made headlines within the Nets community some time ago as some of the players gave their thoughts on how fans in support of tanking are in direct opposition to how players view the NBA. Nets fans are one fanbase that has to be invested in rebuilding this season with Brooklyn looking for its next superstar player, but a veteran on another rebuilding team gave his take on the matter.
"It’s (expletive). I’m a realist and I can understand the big-picture thinking. But I would never wish for my team to lose a game," Toronto Raptors guard Garrett Temple recently said to Eric Koreen of The Athletic. Temple currently plays for a Raptors team that has made some questionable choices with regards to its game-to-game competitiveness as some players have been rested for games outright while others are pulled from games in the fourth quarter.
"I would never wish my players to go out and not compete to win," Temple continued. "As competitors, it’s who we are. I think it’s a situation that with the way the rules are, then there is the incentive to (think like) that. And that’s, in my opinion, wrong." Temple's comments echo a similar sentiment that Nets players like forward Cam Johnson expressed when asked about the fans that root for their teams to lose in the pursuit of getting the highest draft pick possible.
"If that's what they (fans) think, they're not really a fan," Johnson said following a 100-96 win at the Philadelphia 76ers on Feb. 12. "They don't want us to succeed, ask our own players to lose. We're not going to do that. We're out there to compete, win every game, and fight back." This divide between players and fans makes sense given that players are paid to play and win games while fans pay to watch their teams play.
There has been plenty of conversation this season over whether tanking is too pervasive at a time when many are questioning the product that is being put on NBA floors on a nightly basis, but at a time when teams are incentivized to tank, it's hard to ignore that facet of rebuilding in the league. Time will tell if the NBA does more to try to further curb tanking after flattening the odds between the teams with the three worst records in the league, but how players and fans view this topic couldn't be further apart.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Are Nets players alone in their view on NBA fans opinions on tanking?
