Mat Ishbia doubles down on hate in latest ‘loser’

The NBA is currently facing a huge problem in the form of tanks. The league inadvertently has rules that effectively encourage teams to forfeit games hoping for a better draft pick.

At a time when the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers were both heavily fined by the league for violating player participation policies, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia doesn’t mince words about practice.

“It’s a shame, all of this, my perspective is, it’s the tank mentality of a loser. I’ve never been around anybody. Show me someone who wants to lose, who thinks about losing, I’ll show you a loser, they’re losers, that’s not my thing,” Ishbia revealed on the Pat McAfee Show, according to the post on X from ClutchPoints.

“It’s a shame. It’s terrible. My perspective is that tension is a loser’s mentality. … I think it’s bad for the NBA.”

Suns governor Mat Ishbia on the league’s problem.

(via @PatMcAfeeShov)pic.twitter.com/dkK2IShVFf

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 25, 2026

“So I don’t like to lose, I don’t want to talk about losing. We try to win and the draft works, if you don’t have a good team, you get a good pick. But if you trade players on purpose and then you don’t play them, trying to lose games. I think that’s bad for the NBA, I think Adam Silver knows that, it’s going to change, organizations are going to change it.

After the 2026 All-Star break, the race to the bottom became so transparent that NBA commissioner Adam Silver was forced to impose massive financial penalties against organizations that openly throw games.

“It’s fixable, and Adam Silver, kudos to him. He knows it’s a problem, he’s going to fix it. I believe he’s going to fix it, but you can’t have teams like that… Right now, the incentives are misaligned,” Ishbia said.

The Utah Jazz were fined a whopping $500,000 for benching healthy stars Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. in the fourth quarter of highly contested games against Orlando and Miami. Soon after, the Indiana Pacers were docked $100,000 for resting Pascal Siakam and two other starters, in violation of the league’s player participation policy.

Ishbia’s comments signal that at least some owners in the NBA value competition above all else, even if it turns out to be detrimental due to NBA rules.