[wlesieutre]

That is one solution for how to distribute a good that's available in limited quantities. It's not the only solution, or necessarily the "best" solution for any given circumstance.

Other examples include "Who's willing to wait in a 15 minute line for the water fountain," "Enter a lottery for the limited number of season football tickets," and "Only people with an even numbered license plate can buy gas today."

I think there are longer-term factors for the NBA here. If your fans can't get reasonably priced tickets to any of the games they're excited about because of scalping, some percent of them are going to get fed up and do something else with their lives. The NBA gets long term value out of fans being able to connect with their brand at the prices that the NBA is setting, but scalpers are scraping up the benefits from both sides and pocketing it.

NBA doesn't get the money that they could have earned by charging higher prices, and fans don't have a shot at affordable access to events.