Sports
Adam Silver Faces Mounting Pressure as NBA Tanking Problem Grows
Once considered the best commissioner in all of sports, Adam Silver faced more questions than he had answers for at the NBA All-Star Weekend.
Silver has a low bar to clear – as Roger Goodell’s fascination with global expansion in the NFL outweigh his interest in consistent officiating of league discipline for off-field matters. Rob Manfed is in a league of his own, especially if baseball isn’t played in 2027 due to the looming MLB lockout.
But the NBA is facing many of their own challenges. During NBA All-Star Weekend, Silver was peppered with questions about expansion, which doesn’t seem any closer to happening. But more significantly, he was asked about the league’s growing tanking issue.
Over the weekend, Miami Heat two-way player Keshad Johnson won the dunk contest by default, and Damian Lillard won the three-point competition despite not suiting up for a single game with the Portland Trail Blazers yet this season. But tanking is a bigger issue than the lack of buzz or excitement around the NBA’s All-Star festivities.
Right now, a third of the NBA is completely non-competitive.
In the Eastern Conference, the Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls are in the Play-In Tournament slots despite records under .500. Out west, five teams have 20 wins or less.
The race to the bottom has been aggressive. While the 2026 NBA Draft class has coveted prospects including Kansas superstar Darryn Peterson and BYU star AJ Dybantsa, only two teams are going to select those players.
According to The Athletic, Silver is willing to threaten removing the NBA Draft altogether, allowing an entire rookie class to enter free agency. While drastic times call for drastic measures, abolishing the draft would likely be frowned upon by the NBA Player’s Association as well as small market teams that would always have a difficult time competing for premier rookies.
The truth is, Silver has no solution to fix the league’s tanking epidemic. The NBA can fine teams until they are blue in the face – these billionaire owners have plenty of money.
Back in the day, teams would strategically tank by assembling teams that had no business on an NBA court. But in modern day? Teams are shutting stars down left and right to load up their probability for the NBA Draft lottery. There’s no reason for the Utah Jazz to have shut down Jaren Jackson Jr., who they had just played for. The Milwaukee Bucks shouldn’t be allowed to shut down Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Some could argue that the Oklahoma City Thunder, who look primed to be the NBA’s next dynasty, are a product of tanking. But those were bad rosters. They weren’t willingly shutting down superstars.
The NBA is a wildly popular league with the youth. That’s the good news for Silver, who has done a great job appealing to younger fans utilizing social media. But is that younger demographic actually interacting with full games, which is the NBA’s core business?
Silver has to find a way to keep superstars on the floor. Then once they’re on the court, they need to be competing with full effort in the league’s way-too-long 82 game season. From there, he needs to figure out how to stop teams from intentionally tanking seasons, because it turns into an endless pattern.
Does that much losing really serve the fans? For what? A better draft pick?
They have to figure this out with no clear solution. Good luck, Silver.
Sports
Italy's Federica Brignone wins giant slalom; Mikaela Shiffrin finishes 11th
Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States in action during her second run in the women’s giant slalom on Sunday in Belluno, Italy, at the Milan Cortina Olympics. She finished in 11th place, CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Italy’s Federica Brignone completed a golden double on home snow at the Winter Olympics on Sunday, adding the giant slalom title to the super-G won last Thursday, as U.S. Alpine ski great Mikaela Shiffrin again missed out on a medal.
Sweden’s Sara Hector, champion at Beijing 2022, shared silver with Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund with the pair astonishingly clocking identical times in both runs in a race of fine margins.
Italy’s Lara Della Mea finished fourth, missing out on the podium by an agonizing 0.05 of a second with Austria’s pre-race favorite Julia Scheib, the World Cup giant slalom leader, a further 0.02 behind in fifth.
Brignone, who only returned to the Alpine ski World Cup in January after a career-threatening leg injury, won by 0.62 of a second.
She dominated the first run in bright sunshine on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste and then took a safer approach with the medal beckoning.
“It was such an easy run, because the snow was so easy,” the 35-year-old, who now holds both the world and Olympic titles.
“I was almost too calm,” she said of the second run. “I was afraid of not being aggressive enough.”
No other female Italian Alpine skier has ever won two individual golds at the same Games. Brignone is now the oldest Olympic gold medalist in Alpine skiing as well as the oldest female medalist.
Shiffrin, seventh after the first run of a discipline she has found challenging since a nasty crash in 2024, missed out on an Olympic medal again after finishing 11th on a course set by her coach.
The most successful skier in World Cup history, with a record 108 wins, Shiffrin has not won an Olympic medal since 2018 after drawing a blank in Beijing and now has just the slalom remaining to end that drought.
She will be favorite for that title, having won seven of eight World Cup slaloms this season.
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
Sports
Norway’s ‘King Klaebo’ reigns as greatest with 9 Winter Games golds
Johannes Klaebo of Norway celebrates with fans before crossing the finish line to win the Winter Olympics gold medal in the men’s 4×7.5 km relay on Sunday in Lago, Italy. TESERO, Italy — Norway’s Johannes Klaebo cemented his legacy on Sunday by winning a ninth Olympic cross-country gold to become the greatest Winter Olympian of all time.
Nine golds put him ahead of compatriots and fellow cross-country skiers Marit Bjoergen, Bjoern Daehlie and biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who have eight Olympic titles each.
“It was good to share the top with them for a couple of days, but it feels even better to be on the top. It’s a big achievement and will take some time to sink in,” said Klaebo, who won the medal in the men’s 4 x 7.5km relay.
Klaebo’s ninth gold puts him level with six Olympic greats, including Finn Paavo Nurmi, a distance runner, and U.S. sprinter Carl Lewis. One more would lift him to second on the all-time list for any Olympics — Winter or Summer — but he would have some way to go to surpass American swimmer Michael Phelps, who towers above all with 23.
Klaebo could win his 10th in the coming days with a victory in either the men’s team relay on Wednesday or the 50km classic race next Sunday.
“He (Klaebo) is the greatest of all time. We knew that, and now it is also in the numbers,” Italian skier Elia Barp said.
The 29-year-old Klaebo, who lives in Trondheim, Norway, is competing in his second Olympics. His 83-year-old grandfather, who is also his coach, was sitting in the stands at the Tesero Ski Stadium when he won gold on Sunday.
“This is something he has really worked hard for,” Klaebo said. “He’s been my coach since I was 15, and we have really worked hard for it.”
Klaebo is No. 1 in the World Cup standings, and at the Olympics, he has beaten competitors with wide enough margins to casually cross the finish line and wave at the crowd.
The men’s 10km interval freestyle race had been seen as the best chance to knock him off the top of the podium, but he still managed to win that competition by nearly five seconds.
“It makes our job that much harder. Nine more golds until we can get in front of him,” joked U.S. skier Ben Ogden after Sunday’s relay race.
“It is pretty cool, and I like that he’s starting to get some really big recognition for how talented he is because it’s well deserved.”
Klaebo became a household name after a video of him running uphill in the men’s classic sprint went viral, putting the spotlight on a sport that lacks the Olympic fanfare of figure skating or Alpine skiing.
“I think he’ll go down as the greatest of all time. To be racing the same era as him — it is crazy to witness that and to fight against that,” said Canadian skier Remi Drolet.
–Reuters, Special to Field Level Media
Sports
Illinois G Kylan Boswell (hand) to return vs. Indiana
Jan 17, 2026; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini guard Kylan Boswell (4) drives the ball around Minnesota Golden Gophers guard Isaac Asuma (1) during the first half at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Johnson-Imagn Images Illinois starting guard Kylan Boswell is set to return for Sunday’s game against Indiana in Champaign, Ill., per the Big Ten availability report.
Boswell missed the last seven games for the eighth-ranked Fighting Illini since fracturing a bone in his right hand during practice on Jan. 19.
Illinois (20-5, 11-3 Big Ten) won the first five games in his absence before dropping a pair of overtime contests heading into Sunday’s encounter versus the Hoosiers (17-8, 8-6).
Boswell has averages of 14.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 18 games this season while shooting 47.5 percent from the floor.
–Field Level Media
Italy's Federica Brignone wins giant slalom; Mikaela Shiffrin finishes 11th
Norway’s ‘King Klaebo’ reigns as greatest with 9 Winter Games golds
