It’s time to reform rules that promote losing in the NBA.
After Donald Sterling failed to meet the Silver standard in the new commissioner’s first ethical intervention, Silver seems set on making changes to the lottery system in an effort to eliminate the prevailing public perception that teams are tanking. It’s unlikely that these rules would be immediately implemented, but one thing is clear: teams have tanked, are tanking, and will continue to tank until there’s no inadvertent incentive to lose.
Strategies for team building should not be based on loopholes in basketball’s court of law. The intention of the lottery system was to discourage tanking while preserving compassion and consolation for the teams who fought hard but failed. Unfortunately, this has not produced the desired result, and arguably aided in popularizing tanking as a strategy. The fact that Sam Hinkie is considered by many to be the smartest man in Philadelphia is a sad commentary on the current condition of the culture of sportsmanship. The NBA has become a culture that looks to win at any cost, even if it means purposefully bottoming out.
Prior to the 2012 season, the NBA established anti-flopping guidelines to penalize unsportsmanlike conduct. Two years later, Silver is making clear his intent to stop entire teams from pulling the same stunt. One idea suggested by Arturo Galletti is to implement an auction-style draft, which would eliminate the motivation for management to engineer failure in the present for the sake of success in the future.
Not only would the auction-style draft promote the pursuit of excellence in the present, it would reward those who were the most fiscally responsible. The frugal front offices, whether winning or losing, would have competitive purchase-power in an open auction.
It’s pathetic that the 76ers are reportedly fighting to keep rules in place that reward losing games. Good business should not equal bad basketball. Good business, quality basketball, and sportsmanship should not be at odds with each other. There’s something highly suspect about a managerial formula that proposes losing now equals winning later, and this way of thinking does not help the NBA present its best possible product.
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