Would a professional basketball team or any other pro sports team seriously consider deliberately losing games in the later part of their season in order to secure a better pick in the next player draft, you bet your gym socks they would!
It’s called ‘tanking’ and it’s been around for awhile now. No one really talks about tanking very much except to say what a despicable practice it is but, it is not all that uncommon. If a team arrives at a point in their season when it is obvious that they have no hope of reaching the playoffs anyway… why not?
Decriers say that it is unprofessional. Some call it disgraceful and others say that tanking displays questionable ethics and practices to young players. Sports broadcasters and writers have been talking down ‘tanking’ for years now.
But historical evidence shows that, in a few specialized cases, tanking has paid off very well indeed. This year a couple of big named programs are floundering in the doldrums and desperately looking at the upcoming crop of talent for relief.
Critics have called the practice of tanking one of the most Machiavellian concepts in professional sports today. Others take the more pragmatic approach. This year is not going to work out, there is a terrific prospect who will surely go in the first round, lose a couple of more games and he could be ours.
And the 2014 NBA Draft looks to be loaded with extraordinary talent on the horizon. Although the Boston Celtics organization has publically opposed tanking, the Celtics would seem to be in the best position to benefit from a little tanking this season.
The NBA used to determine which team got the first pick in the draft by flipping a coin between the two teams in each division with the worst records. Yes, a young athlete’s fate… and that of the team… depended on a coin toss.
That all ended in 1985 when the NBA revised so that all the teams not participating in the playoffs would be given an equal chance at first choice in the draft as determined by a lottery type drawing. Like a game show.
Finally, in 1990, the NBA adopted the system that we still use today. The worst team in the league is awarded the first pick in the draft.
But has tanking actually ever worked in a significant way? Think about LeBron James in 2003 and Dwight Howard in 2004… could it really be?
