Between the NFL and NBA, there are a total of 62 organizations spread out across the U.S. and Canada. The ultimate goal for each of these teams is to win a championship that respective season. To accomplish this, a team needs to have a good roster, a solid coaching staff and a good bond between every teammate. However, this occurrence only applies to a few teams, the elite ones per se. What happens when an organization has an awful roster, a horrid coaching staff and there is no camaraderie whatsoever? The answer most NFL and NBA owners would answer with is “tanking.”
When a team tries to tank, they purposefully start losing games to improve their draft positions and sign a generational talent. A notable example of this was back in 2011. Despite having a playoff-level roster with a top-10 head coach at that time, the Indianapolis Colts lost 14 of their 16 games to secure the number one draft selection and pick a prospect who was well-regarded throughout NFL history, Andrew Luck.
However, tanking not only takes a toll on a team, but also the fans. One avid NFL viewer, freshmen Dominic Golembieski of Tinton Falls, believes when you see your favorite team start to purposely lose games, you realize that you built up hope that season for no reason.
“There is no reason to even support your team anymore for that season, and you better pray they land a good prospect in that upcoming draft,” Golembieski said.
Prospect upside is hard to determine, since it is mostly opinionated. In the case of the 2011 Indianapolis Colts, the fans were ecstatic about the team tanking for Andrew Luck. The Colts’ star quarterback, Peyton Manning, was traded and the team required a young quarterback.
Unlike in the NFL, where a team can purposely be terrible in the league and have a greater chance of obtaining the number one draft pick, the NBA has a unique event before the draft that doesn’t always guarantee a prime-time selection opportunity.
Beginning in 1985, the NBA lottery is where the bottom 14 teams (10 that get eliminated in the regular season and 4 that get eliminated in the play-in round) in the league have the chance to receive the number one pick in the upcoming draft. Chancing is determined by team performance throughout the season. The three worst-perfoming teams have a 14% chance, with odds slimming as records improve, reaching an 0.5% chance for the team with the highest win percentage. The first-ever team to win the NBA lottery was the New York Knicks, who used that pick to draft future hall of famer Patrick Ewing, an 11 time all star who averaged 22.8 points a game over 15 years (1039 games), and brought a New York Knicks team that was widely considered a bottom tier team for multiple years, to a team that could make deep runs in the playoffs. The team that won the lottery with the slightest chances was the 1993 Orlando Magic, who had a 1.5% chance of winning the lottery and are the only team to win the lottery with a .500 record or better (41-41).
Sophomore Joseph Calabrese of Tinton Falls was very passionate about how he felt about teams practicing the tanking technique. When asked what teams he believes will tank, Calabrese believed the San Antionio Spurs, who drafted Victor Wembanyama with the first pick in the draft last year, and the Houston Rockets, who were in the bottom three in the NBA standings the previous year, would likely take advantage of this strategy. When it comes to the NBA lottery, he believes it’s useful.
“I think the lottery is a great idea. It makes tanking less viable, but it still gives the best odds to tanking teams. The NBA did a great job with that.”
Whether it’s the right thing to do or not, tanking plays a vital role in some teams’ ideas to improve for future seasons. Whether it’s as easy as getting last place in the NFL, or hoping lady luck is on your side in the NBA lottery, the number one draft pick is game-changing to previously mediocre teams that hope to rebuild and win a championship in the near future.
