February 18, 2026 • 6 mins
“If the NBA keeps pretending tanking doesn’t exist… who exactly are they fooling?”
That’s the thought‑provoking question that kicks off this segment of The Ben & Skin Show — featuring Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina RayThis episode dives deep into the chaos swirling around the NBA’s tanking problem, along with the Mavericks news of the day that Kryie Irving will not be returning this season.
That’s the thought‑provoking question that kicks off this segment of The Ben & Skin Show — featuring Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina RayThis episode dives deep into the chaos swirling around the NBA’s tanking problem, along with the Mavericks news of the day that Kryie Irving will not be returning this season.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right around five thirty is Texas Barbecue in trouble? Could
Texas Barbecue be going away? Good God, I hope not.
That's coming up at five thirty ish. Uh, coming up
here in about ten minutes the latest cancelation from the
Epstein Files controversy. But right now it's time for this, reach.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Down and grab a couple of plump tomatoes.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
It's time for sports catch up. Cutup, Sports sports catchrop, catchup, buns,
so quick, cleanup. Kevin Durant was asked today after practice
about his burner allegations. Yeah, he did not deny it.
(00:41):
He just said he's not here to get into Twitter
nonsense and that he and his teammates been locked in
all season.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So you know, so the guy who engages in lots
of Twitter nonsense is not here for Twitter nonsense. Yeah, yeah,
you know, well allegedly, yeah, textall he admits that he's
engaged in Twitter dunsinse.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
It's tough.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
MAVs went ahead and made it official today. Kyrie Irving
will not be playing this year. He's going to go ahead,
sit the rest of the year out, get ready for
next year.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Any surprises, I'm not surprised by it. I mean I
think it's the best thing. There's no reason to rush
him back. You're not going to make the postseason, and
even if he's ready, bringing him back only makes your
team better. And realistically, the best thing you could do
is lose every game. And if you brought him back
(01:27):
and you were sitting him out a bunch, then maybe
the league looks at you and gets mad and they're like,
are you're taking So I mean, it's kind of it
just seems like the right thing to do that.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
You know, what Ben just brought up is this whole
other conversation and it's been dominating NBA headlines for I
mean really a week and a half, but it was
huge over the All Star weekend because Adam Silver addressed
the media and all this stuff. But I don't know
how they're going to figure all this out, Like how
they you know, addressed tanking. Did you guys see Cuban
(01:58):
going on his social media you know, ran or whatever
you want to call it. But if they are finding
teams for tanking and Jason Tatum is trying to come
back and all this stuff is going on, it gets
very convoluted. But then at the same time, if the
Mavericks are okay with a player saying I don't feel
(02:21):
like playing because of my age and my health status
and all these different things. I really don't see how
anybody could get involved and say anything otherwise, right, unless
it's they play the whole game and then the fourth
quarter they're out right, it's like, that's suspicious. So if
you're you know, you guys probably saw what Hardy was
(02:43):
saying in Utah, where he's like, well, those guys hit
their minutes restrictions, It's like, okay. And then meanwhile in
San Antonio, when Stefan Cassel has a minute restriction, he
doesn't start the game so he can end it. You know,
it's like it's it's a huge problem for the NBA
to deal with all this. And one of the arguments
or debates about tanking is that you're screwing over fans
(03:06):
paying tickets. And there's one thousand think pieces and articles
right now about how to fix tanking. If you quote
unquote thinks it think it needs to be fixed, I
have a novel idea if the problem is truly money.
And by the way, one of the other issues the
NBA has is they should cut ten games off their schedule.
But they never will sure, And that's the case with anything.
(03:28):
Money changes everything, no matter what you were passionate about
or cared about. The second that it becomes commerce and
money gets involved, it changes. It always does. That's the
way it goes.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
The NBA.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
One should lock ten games off of their season. It'd
be better for everybody. You wouldn't have to worry about
load management. And then number two, if a team, I
think if a team doesn't win a certain percentage, have
a certain winning percentage of their games, then there should
be a percentage of rebate on tickets that the fans
get back. Oh, I like that, And then that would
(04:01):
if it's money driven, which it is, it would incentivize
teams to win games for people who pay tickets to
go to games in which a team is intentionally not
trying to win. If that is the crutz. There's this
whole other argument about competitive nature. But I think you
can make an abstract argument that you're trying to be
more competitive in the future by tanking. So I think
(04:23):
that becomes, you know, part of the argument. I'm actually
trying to be more competitive in a year by getting
a bear draft position. But if it's about the value
and what people pay and what teams are, what networks
are paying for TV deals. Then if you don't win
a certain percentage of your games, there should be a rebate.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
That's interesting for the Yeah, for the long term perspective,
it's better to tank. It's better for you as a fan.
For the short term ticket holder who's already committed to
season tickets, right, they're screwed, right, So I can see that.
For me, it doesn't for the It doesn't bother me
with the MAVs because I want to watch Flag, I
don't and I want them to lose, and so I don't.
(05:03):
I don't mind. I mean, if a bunch of people
stop buying MAVs tickets because they're toast and you know
they're tanking or whatever, that's better for me. If ticket
prices come down, I would love that, because I really
all I care about is watching Cooper Flag and I
hope he has a great game in it, and I
hope they lose.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
It's so interesting the idea of what fans want and
value and what's best for your franchise. You know, those
Memphis fans, they don't want Memphis trading John Morant. Those
Memphis fans love him, and the franchise is like in
a mode where they may just if anybody takes them
off their hands, they would be ecstatic, you know. And
it's like those things just don't always align. And so
(05:41):
when you start conflating what's best for the franchise and
quote unquote competitiveness, those things aren't even aligned.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Well, that Anthony Davis is a perfect example of that, Yeah, right,
Like they just got rid of him just to start over, Yeah,
and didn't really get anything for him other than you know,
cap relief and to heat to be competitive. If you're
worried about this year's season ticket holders, it would have
been rushing back from injury even though we're not gonna
make the playoffs. So those games are more competitive. But
(06:08):
those things don't always align.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It's it's tough and the and the toughest part of
it is the disingenuous nature of the conversation of tanking,
Like it's a phony conversation, and if you don't talk
about it in a certain way, you get or you
do talk about it a certain way, you get fined
for being real, you get fine for telling the truth.
And so it's just the whole thing is complicated and convoluted,
(06:30):
but when there's that many billions of dollars at stake,
becomes a really tricky, sticky mess.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And it looks like Kyrie could come back based on
the videos and stuff he's posting and what you're seeing,
but there's no reason to rush it. So Kyrie done
for the year. It's official. He's not coming back, all right,
coming up here in a couple of minutes, the latest
cancelation in the Epstein Files controversy. You've got to hear this.
It's next
Right around five thirty is Texas Barbecue in trouble? Could
Texas Barbecue be going away? Good God, I hope not.
That's coming up at five thirty ish. Uh, coming up
here in about ten minutes the latest cancelation from the
Epstein Files controversy. But right now it's time for this, reach.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Down and grab a couple of plump tomatoes.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
It's time for sports catch up. Cutup, Sports sports catchrop, catchup, buns,
so quick, cleanup. Kevin Durant was asked today after practice
about his burner allegations. Yeah, he did not deny it.
(00:41):
He just said he's not here to get into Twitter
nonsense and that he and his teammates been locked in
all season.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So you know, so the guy who engages in lots
of Twitter nonsense is not here for Twitter nonsense. Yeah, yeah,
you know, well allegedly, yeah, textall he admits that he's
engaged in Twitter dunsinse.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
It's tough.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
MAVs went ahead and made it official today. Kyrie Irving
will not be playing this year. He's going to go ahead,
sit the rest of the year out, get ready for
next year.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Any surprises, I'm not surprised by it. I mean I
think it's the best thing. There's no reason to rush
him back. You're not going to make the postseason, and
even if he's ready, bringing him back only makes your
team better. And realistically, the best thing you could do
is lose every game. And if you brought him back
(01:27):
and you were sitting him out a bunch, then maybe
the league looks at you and gets mad and they're like,
are you're taking So I mean, it's kind of it
just seems like the right thing to do that.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
You know, what Ben just brought up is this whole
other conversation and it's been dominating NBA headlines for I
mean really a week and a half, but it was
huge over the All Star weekend because Adam Silver addressed
the media and all this stuff. But I don't know
how they're going to figure all this out, Like how
they you know, addressed tanking. Did you guys see Cuban
(01:58):
going on his social media you know, ran or whatever
you want to call it. But if they are finding
teams for tanking and Jason Tatum is trying to come
back and all this stuff is going on, it gets
very convoluted. But then at the same time, if the
Mavericks are okay with a player saying I don't feel
(02:21):
like playing because of my age and my health status
and all these different things. I really don't see how
anybody could get involved and say anything otherwise, right, unless
it's they play the whole game and then the fourth
quarter they're out right, it's like, that's suspicious. So if
you're you know, you guys probably saw what Hardy was
(02:43):
saying in Utah, where he's like, well, those guys hit
their minutes restrictions, It's like, okay. And then meanwhile in
San Antonio, when Stefan Cassel has a minute restriction, he
doesn't start the game so he can end it. You know,
it's like it's it's a huge problem for the NBA
to deal with all this. And one of the arguments
or debates about tanking is that you're screwing over fans
(03:06):
paying tickets. And there's one thousand think pieces and articles
right now about how to fix tanking. If you quote
unquote thinks it think it needs to be fixed, I
have a novel idea if the problem is truly money.
And by the way, one of the other issues the
NBA has is they should cut ten games off their schedule.
But they never will sure, And that's the case with anything.
(03:28):
Money changes everything, no matter what you were passionate about
or cared about. The second that it becomes commerce and
money gets involved, it changes. It always does. That's the
way it goes.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
The NBA.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
One should lock ten games off of their season. It'd
be better for everybody. You wouldn't have to worry about
load management. And then number two, if a team, I
think if a team doesn't win a certain percentage, have
a certain winning percentage of their games, then there should
be a percentage of rebate on tickets that the fans
get back. Oh, I like that, And then that would
(04:01):
if it's money driven, which it is, it would incentivize
teams to win games for people who pay tickets to
go to games in which a team is intentionally not
trying to win. If that is the crutz. There's this
whole other argument about competitive nature. But I think you
can make an abstract argument that you're trying to be
more competitive in the future by tanking. So I think
(04:23):
that becomes, you know, part of the argument. I'm actually
trying to be more competitive in a year by getting
a bear draft position. But if it's about the value
and what people pay and what teams are, what networks
are paying for TV deals. Then if you don't win
a certain percentage of your games, there should be a rebate.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
That's interesting for the Yeah, for the long term perspective,
it's better to tank. It's better for you as a fan.
For the short term ticket holder who's already committed to
season tickets, right, they're screwed, right, So I can see that.
For me, it doesn't for the It doesn't bother me
with the MAVs because I want to watch Flag, I
don't and I want them to lose, and so I don't.
(05:03):
I don't mind. I mean, if a bunch of people
stop buying MAVs tickets because they're toast and you know
they're tanking or whatever, that's better for me. If ticket
prices come down, I would love that, because I really
all I care about is watching Cooper Flag and I
hope he has a great game in it, and I
hope they lose.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
It's so interesting the idea of what fans want and
value and what's best for your franchise. You know, those
Memphis fans, they don't want Memphis trading John Morant. Those
Memphis fans love him, and the franchise is like in
a mode where they may just if anybody takes them
off their hands, they would be ecstatic, you know. And
it's like those things just don't always align. And so
(05:41):
when you start conflating what's best for the franchise and
quote unquote competitiveness, those things aren't even aligned.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Well, that Anthony Davis is a perfect example of that, Yeah, right,
Like they just got rid of him just to start over, Yeah,
and didn't really get anything for him other than you know,
cap relief and to heat to be competitive. If you're
worried about this year's season ticket holders, it would have
been rushing back from injury even though we're not gonna
make the playoffs. So those games are more competitive. But
(06:08):
those things don't always align.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It's it's tough and the and the toughest part of
it is the disingenuous nature of the conversation of tanking,
Like it's a phony conversation, and if you don't talk
about it in a certain way, you get or you
do talk about it a certain way, you get fined
for being real, you get fine for telling the truth.
And so it's just the whole thing is complicated and convoluted,
(06:30):
but when there's that many billions of dollars at stake,
becomes a really tricky, sticky mess.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And it looks like Kyrie could come back based on
the videos and stuff he's posting and what you're seeing,
but there's no reason to rush it. So Kyrie done
for the year. It's official. He's not coming back, all right,
coming up here in a couple of minutes, the latest
cancelation in the Epstein Files controversy. You've got to hear this.
It's next
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