I was in an Uber on my way to watch the Lakers play the Spurs at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday when I received a text alerting me that none of the Lakers’ five starters—LeBron James, Luka Dončić, even Austin Reaves—would be playing that night. Five days before the NBA All-Star Game, which is coincidentally also going to be held in L.A., the Lakers ran out a team that might not win a G League all-star game. Jake LaRavia and Kobe Bufkin started; Jaxson Hayes drew the short straw and had to guard the Spurs’ second-year, all-universe center, Victor Wembanyama. I mean, even Bronny James put up 12 points in 25 minutes. The game went pretty much as you’d expect. Wemby dropped 40 in 26 minutes, and San Antonio coasted to a 28-point win.

Just a few days earlier, the Jazz had a seven-point lead on the Magic heading into the fourth quarter. Instead of playing to win, Utah kept three of its starters—Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen, and Jusuf Nurkić—on the bench for the entire final quarter. Orlando won the game by three. And just this morning, the team announced that Jackson, their splashy trade-deadline acquisition, was going to have season-ending knee surgery.

Alas, these are the twin hemorrhoids of the NBA. The Lakers were employing the dreaded load management in order to keep a franchise guard and 40-something legend fresh for a playoff push in the spring. The Jazz are tanking harder than an M1 Abrams for a shot at a better draft position. Not that fans, who are increasingly alienated by both strategies, see much of a distinction. The Lakers mess put Stephen A. in “think of the working man” mode. And on his podcast this week, Bill Simmons put the issue in a more thoughtful context: “The regular season has real issues. It’s too long. Guys are getting hurt too much. … They’re not serving the larger picture of what fans want. How do we keep our players healthy? How do we have a competitive season from start to finish?”

League and media executives aren’t deaf to these complaints. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has taken several steps to try to keep teams from losing on purpose, including levying fines for holding players out of games. But those penalties pale in comparison to the economic value on the other side of the equation—with modern sports science, players are incentivized to extend their careers much further into their 30s; and in a star-centric league, management generally has to accommodate their talent’s proclivities. Last season, the NBA fined the Jazz $100,000 for sitting Markkanen in several games, even though he was the team’s leading scorer. This year, the Jazz found a loophole by starting Markkanen and not playing him in the fourth quarter. Either way, it’s hard to imagine that this overly irked owner Ryan Smith, whose club has already appreciated in value since he bought it for $1.6 billion in 2020.

The real problem is that the media companies that carry the NBA are making their own Faustian bargain—willing to swallow a regular-season game without LeBron, Luka, and Reaves if it means they’ll be healthy for the playoffs. In reality, this dynamic was fully realized well before Amazon, ESPN, and NBC signed $76 billion worth of rights deals. “Our eyes were wide open,” one media executive said. And many have long ago made peace with tankonomics. “Regular season is nice-to-have,” another media executive told me. “It’s important because you get a lot of games and decent-size audiences. But the majority of the value of these media deals is centered around the postseason.”

Meanwhile, Silver is considering further steps to remediate tanking, potentially even banning teams from the lottery for two years running, or locking in draft positions a month before the regular season ends. Load management is a different case, and more difficult to police—the association doesn’t want to dictate how teams and coaches use their players, which would inevitably inflame the union. The league’s recently enacted minimum threshold on games played for postseason award consideration hasn’t done much. Simmons raised the idea of cutting the number of regular-season games from 82 to 70, but that would mean lost revenue—12 fewer gates, 12 fewer broadcasts, etcetera. Good luck getting that past the owners and the union.

Once the basketball elite tackle the NBA oversupply issue in Los Angeles this weekend, they’ll have other puzzles to solve. As regular Varsity readers know by now, Main Street Sports, home to 13 of the league’s local broadcast deals, will wind down operations after the regular season, putting those markets in limbo. The NBA has already initiated talks with streaming companies that have expressed interest in picking up a package of local rights. As I reported a couple of weeks ago, the league has taken meetings with Google/YouTube, Amazon Prime, Apple, ESPN, and DAZN.

Now, with less than 30 games left in the season, the post-Main Street future is coming into view, and it will indeed involve the streamers. The goal, according to sources, is to create a package of local streaming rights by next season. There’s little chance that such a package would include the rights to all 30 teams by opening tip in the fall, but most of the teams that have/had Main Street deals would likely be part of the package, including the Hawks, Hornets, Heat, Thunder, Cavs, Pacers, Pistons, Timberwolves, Magic, Bucks, Spurs, Clippers, and Grizzlies.

Streaming executives have told the leagues that they’re more interested in buying an incomplete package of rights than negotiating local deals one team at a time. Within the next two years, all NBA teams could be part of that package—ensuring that fans everywhere will have continued, unfettered access to the Kobe Bufkin Regular-Season Starter Experience.

On NFL media negotiations: “I can’t wait for the bidding war to begin! I think Fox and CBS are in the most trouble with their packages because they are afternoon games and YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix will want them. I’m curious if Apple will be interested in buying anything from them. I think both Comcast and Disney will be able to keep their packages, but scripted will be impacted greatly by the price increase.” —A Varsity subscriber

On the NFL’s opening night: “Looking at the Seahawks’ 2026 home opponents, the Chicago Bears stand out as the clear NFL Kickoff pairing. You can’t bank on Patrick Mahomes being available given the timing of his A.C.L./L.C.L. injury. The league won’t make the Cowboys open on the road in the Kickoff game two years running, nor schedule a Super Bowl rematch that early. And with the Rams and 49ers committed to Melbourne, you’re not slotting the Giants, Cardinals, or Chargers into that spotlight over the Bears.” —A sports executive

On media layoffs: “That was a great Varsity chat with Ben Strauss, with refreshingly candid insight into the Washington Post debacle. I was recently impacted in a similar fashion, so it was interesting to hear how these things develop on an individual level.” —A Varsity subscriber

We’re off on Monday for the federal holiday. Have a great long weekend, everybody. See you Tuesday.

John