The Philadelphia 76ers are right down there with the Milwaukee Bucks in the “competition” to have the most ping pong balls in the NBA Draft lottery, and with that the best chance to win the #1 pick in the NBA Draft. The Bucks have been so horrible that they pretty much have that position locked up, although the Philadelphia 76ers came on “strong” to challenge Milwaukee for that position via their record tying losing streak.
All this losing has made many of us question the motives of us these teams/players/franchises, and with it the legitimacy of the system in general. Well, one Philadelphia 76ers fan agrees with me that reforming the NBA Draft lottery system is long overdue.
Here’s portion of a letter I received this week:
I’m working to bring together a coalition of NBA fan groups and bloggers to push for reform of the NBA draft lottery system.
I’m a Philly fan and, after the Philadelphia 76ers 26th loss, I figured we should do something about it. So, a friend and I — along with a dozen or so other NBA fan leaders — put together www.NBArrassing.com to pressure Commissioner Silver to reform the broken draft lottery system.
In short, we don’t fault fans for wanting their teams to tank or for front offices to take advantage of the status quo. However, we do think that a system that incentivizes losing is inherently wrong and that there are a number of reasonable alternative proposals that could work to the benefit of teams, the league and fans.
Well, I’m with you! I’m totally on board with this grassroots movement to reform the NBA lottery. As I wrote on March 24th, in my “8 ways the NBA can catch up to March Madness in popularity.”
6. Re-work the draft, revise the lottery
All the talk right now is about whether or not we should have a minimum age requirement, and whether that rule should be extended from one year out of school to two years out. That’s a debate for another time and space. The biggest issue with the lottery is not the guys getting a shipload of money at a very young age. It’s the fact that the lottery is counter-intuitive to succeeding. The NBA already knows this and they’re already working on how to fix this broken system.
“If you’re not a Heat or Pacers fan, or don’t live west of Chicago, you’re being sold an empty shell of a season, and an empty promise of a future, given the mixed record of draft picks. Just ask Cavs fans,” says Gary Hoenig, former Editor-in-Chief and General Manager of ESPN Publishing.
“When 36 percent of your league is willfully throwing away the last five weeks of an 82-game season, you’re doing something wrong.” – Bill Simmons, March 5, 2014
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks is a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, who’s been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)