Throughout the NBA’s nearly 80-year history, like any organization, the league has navigated several broader obstacles.
Among them, a blatant drug problem it faced in the 1980s, the issue of load management, which began last decade, and the recent pandemic. Overall, the league is no stranger to choppy waters.
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Flash forward to the present, and the ship that is the NBA is once again attempting to navigate some rough waves. This time it’s a different concern: tanking.
Now, it’s time to take a step back. Here is a look back at the origin of tanking and why the problem is coming to a head, especially this season.
The Early Days
Broadly speaking, the term “tanking” refers to a team purposefully and strategically losing to secure a better pick in the NBA draft.
To clarify, tanking is not a new concept. In the league’s history, it first began decades ago during the 1981-82 season.
The story begins with Donald Sterling, a man who is no stranger to controversy.
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Sterling was caught on a leaked audio tape insisting his team, the San Diego Clippers, needed to finish last in the league (which they did). That was to draft a high-upside prospect at the time, like Ralph Sampson. For these comments (and other shady activities), then-Commissioner David Stern levied a $10,000 fine on Sterling.
Moving forward, just a few years later, tanking would rear its head once again.
During the 1983-84 season, after a 20-26 start, the Houston Rockets made a conscious decision to sit their starters. It would finish the rest of the year 9-27.
Why? They wanted the first pick and Hakeem Olajuwon, whom the Rockets eventually drafted.
In the same year, the Chicago Bulls pulled off a similar effort. It finished the season 3-16. Two of those wins came in overtime. Chicago eventually earned the third selection in the draft and took Michael Jordan.
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At the time, the NBA had no type of lottery system compared to today.
Instead, the format was simple: the league’s two worst teams flipped a coin for the first and second pick. All remaining franchises took up the first round in reverse order of their records.
Lottery Introduction
After the 1983-84 season, the NBA seemed motivated to make a change. In June of 1984, change arrived.
The NBA Board of Governors voted to implement a lottery for the 1985 draft and beyond. This took the form of a raffle.
Every team that missed the postseason was represented by an envelope. The envelopes were then randomly drawn, giving all non-playoff teams the same chance to land the top pick.
The league then modified this system over the years.
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Just two seasons after the lottery’s introduction, the Board of Governors gathered once again. This time, to ensure the lottery determined the order of selection for the three worst teams only. The remaining lottery-qualifying teams are then picked in inverse order of their regular-season records.
By doing this, it guaranteed the last-place team would not receive worse than the fourth overall pick.
Lasting Lottery Changes Made
The start of a new decade also came with new updates to the NBA’s lottery system.
With the addition of four new teams in the league (Hornets, Heat, Timberwolves, Magic), the league implemented a weighted system for the 1990 NBA Draft. The lottery was reduced to 11 teams, and the franchise with the worst regular-season finish received 11 chances to land the first pick. The second-worst team had 10 chances, and so on.
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Three years later, in 1993, another modification was made. Amid complaints that the lottery was not rewarding enough for the worst teams, the NBA enacted a four-ball combination system. Ultimately, the changes resulted in the worst team having a 16% chance of landing the top pick see their odds balloon to 25%.
For over two decades, this system, by and large, remained. And over the coming years, many teams used this system to their advantage.
For example, the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2002-03. Cleveland traded away Andre Miller, their most valuable player from the prior year. It also frequently played role players like Smush Parker and Jumaine Jones.
Of course, this strategy ended up yielding the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. Cleveland used this pick to eventually select LeBron James.
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Recent Changes and Controversies
The NBA enjoyed its lottery system for over 20 years, until 2019.
After witnessing tanking reach a boiling point with the “Trust the Process” era in Philadelphia, Commissioner Adam Silver and the league attempted to “flatten” the odds. The change resulted in the three worst teams all having the same odds to land the first overall pick. The next several teams were given similar odds in an attempt to disincentivize losing.
Shortly after, the NBA also introduced the Play-In Tournament and later the NBA Cup in an effort to make the regular season matter more.
While these efforts broadly aimed to boost competitiveness in the regular season, it has proven to be not enough to make any significant dent in tanking.
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This season, the Jazz and Pacers are both in the midst of major tanking. Both their efforts recently came into the spotlight. Just a couple of weeks ago, Adam Silver dished out a $500,000 fine to Utah and a $100,000 fine to Indiana for “conduct detrimental to the league.”
This came after the 18-41 Jazz sat star players Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. after the third quarter of a game vs. the Heat. As for the 15-45 Pacers, they were deemed guilty of violating the NBA’s Player Participation Policy. A league investigation found Pascal Siakam and two other starters did not play despite being medically able.
Ultimately, tanking has been a beast the NBA has been trying to wrestle for decades. It has proven to be perhaps the most difficult problem for the league to solve.
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And now, Adam Silver and the Board of Governors will have to get creative to solve this issue once and for all.
The post When Did the NBA’s Tanking Problem Really Start? appeared first on The Lead.