Integrity is one of the key reasons we all love sports.
It gives us something to believe in and it takes us away from the corruption we are exposed to in everyday life.
But sometimes integrity is lost.
There are constant murmurs about teams tanking their seasons to get a top pick in their respective league’s draft, effectively killing sports’ purity.
That’s where the NBA Draft Lottery comes in. A unique system in which teams that miss the playoffs are bunched together into an unpredictable process to determine the draft order.
This means the worst team, while owning the best chance at the first pick, is not guaranteed the top selection like in the NFL and MLB drafts.
As a matter of fact, the NBA’s worst team has only received the first pick four times in the 26 years that the system has been in place.
The New Jersey Nets had the best shot at winning the John Wall sweepstakes this season after finishing with the fourth-worst record in NBA history at 12-70, but still only managed to come away with the third overall selection in this year’s draft.
However, some people will argue that there are some negatives to this system.
1. Corruption: In its attempt to fight against it, the NBA really leaves itself vulnerable to corruption.
The actual drawing of the ping-pong balls is done behind closed doors, which means critics argue the NBA rigs it so big-market teams have a better chance to get top picks.
But the New York Knicks, Los Angleles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics, the four biggest NBA markets in my opinion, have only won the lottery a combined three times.
So that rules this conspiracy theory out.
2. Unbalanced: When teams such as the Philadelphia 76ers, the 20th worst team in the NBA in 1986, win the lottery, that isn’t always good for the league.
The pros that come along with the NFL and MLB systems is that it’s stable and consistent. The worst team will pick first, while the best team will pick last.
Which is why some people say good teams in the NBA dominate for longer. The lottery doesn’t always reward the worst teams, killing their chances of competing with the big boys.
But that just isn’t true.
In the last 40 years, 14 teams in both the NFL and NBA have won titles, which shows the different systems used to decide the draft order in each league don’t necessarily affect parity as much as people think.
With those criticisms put to rest, I can’t find many more reasons to poke holes.
I will always support a system that keeps teams competitive and creates some excitement for fans of non-playoff teams during the postseason.
Now, let’s take a page out of sports’ book and have some integrity and give the NBA some well-deserved credit.
