Donald Sterling bought the San Diego Clippers in May 1981 and was the first owner to say, “Losing can create winning.” He was the original tanker. By 1985, the NBA instituted a draft lottery to discourage tanking.
This year, the Washington Wizards tanked and luckily won the draft lottery for the first pick later this summer.
This will be Washington’s third time picking first since 1985. Their last championship was in 1978.
In 2001, the Wizards drafted Kwame Brown out of high school. You remember him. He played for seven teams over 12 seasons with career averages of 6.6 ppg and 5.5 rpg. They passed on Hall of Famers Pau Gasol and Tony Parker.
They did better in 2010, picking John Wall out of Kentucky, a five-time all-star with career averages of 18.7 ppg and 8.9 asp.
The 25-26 NBA regular season was pathetic, with at least 10 teams intentionally tanking because of the wealth of talent available in this year’s draft.
What fan wants to spend $8,000 to $20,000 on season tickets to watch an effortless team? Even the visiting teams would sit some of their best players under the guise of load management.
Owners of sports teams in the US are guaranteed a spot in the league and a cut of media revenue, no matter how their team performs. Even the soccer league lets losers stay.
The NBA has instituted measures starting in 2027 to discourage tanking. They probably won’t eliminate the issue—the best solution is relegation.
Worldwide soccer leagues do not have a talent draft. They sign players on the open market, some at young ages, not quite in diapers. Many are signed to the franchise’s development programs.
In addition to relegation, eliminating the NBA draft would discourage tanking.
In the United States, there are 30 NBA teams and 31 G League teams. That could be broken into 3 tiers: a 22-team top tier, a 20-team G League, and a 19-team also-rans tier. If a new franchise is created, it would start in the bottom tier.
The 22 top-tier teams would play each other four times, for an 84-game schedule. The top 16 teams would make the playoffs, and the other 6 would be relegated to the G League. The top 6 teams in the G League would be promoted. There would be a promotion-and-relegation mechanism between the G League and also-rans.
Without a draft, some teams may overspend on new talent. To keep some parity and competitive interest, there would be a floating cap on how much a team could spend on rookie contracts. The cap would be highest for the also-rans, then go down to the lowest for the NBA champion. A rookie is defined as a person who has never signed a contract with any team in the tiers.
What happens if a player is injured and a team needs a replacement? The trades would be interesting.