With rumors swirling that some teams *cough* Charlotte Bobcats *cough* could be purposely tanking games to improve their chances of getting the first pick in the draft lottery, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy thinks that if everyone was given the same chance of winning the lottery, this perceived problem would no longer exist ."I think every team should have an equal chance at winning the lottery, from the best team all the way down," Van Gundy said. "I don't want to accuse anyone of anything. I would say to take away any possible conflict of interest, everyone should have an equal chance at the top pick all the way down. That way there would be absolutely no question by anybody about anything.Jeff does raise an interesting point: Why does the NBA seemingly reward losers? But, in a way, he answers his own question. It's all about parity. Without it, the NBA and other sports leagues wouldn't survive.
"If it's better for the game, they should do it. I never quite understood why losing is rewarded, other than (for) parity."
Just enjoy that you have a good and playoff-bound team around you, Jeff. Enjoy it while it lasts. You never know when you'll need a little help in getting those ping pong balls to bounce your way.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-28-2007 @ 3:47AM
Miss Gossip said...
You can help achieve parity in other ways that have less conflicts of interest, like revenue sharing that allows teams to compete for free agents.
You could also just raise the stakes to make teams *really* want to win. In English soccer they do promotion and demotion -- so in the NBA every year the worst three teams could go to the D-league and the top three D-leaguers go up to the NBA. No one would be tanking then!
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3-28-2007 @ 5:11AM
Ummerr said...
Perhaps another way to avoid tanking would be to have a two tier system. Teams that make the playoffs (all have slightly worse odds) and teams that don't (slightly better). That way, no one would bother tanking to the extent that Boston or Memphis is. I do like the idea of demotion however.
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