Most republican worldview I've ever seen expressed in sports....

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2814358&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

"Van Gundy wants to open up the NBA draft lottery to all 30 NBA teams in an effort to keep teams from losing intentionally to hopefully secure the No. 1 pick."

"I think every team should have an equal chance at winning the lottery, from the best team all the way down..."

Jeff VanGundy


The losers deserve to be losers. The winners should win more. There's no value in the entire league being competitive. The only thing missing was a comment about cadillac-driving "lottery queens"

What a fuckwipe.

what a jerk.

and even though this method doesn't account for the ability to trade players for picks, consider some of the teams that have had picks in the top 5 over the last six years:

Charlotte (expansion team, but has had a top five pick since the team was founded)
Milwaukee

both of these teams are at the very bottom of the Eastern Conference


Memphis, New Orleans, LA Clippers, Golden State

all have had a few picks in the top five these last few years, and not a one of them is over .500 this season.

It's supposedly wiser to spend your money on later picks to get more good players, than wasting it all on one exceptional player.

There is an interesting book on the subject

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneyball

Not everything has some evil republican spin.

Im guessing that maybe you just dont that much about sports. It SHOULD be oopened to all the teams not just freaking six of them. It should be ran the exact same way it is in the NFL.

And Van Gundy is a fuck of a coach and a great man.

If it were run the same way as the NFL, it would not "be open to all the teams"

I'm not a basketball fan but I remember premier teams like the f***ing Boston Celtics and friggin' LA Lakers getting high draft choices throughout the 80's. Am I remembering that wrong?

championships--but I think the system changed fairly recently, last several years or so. The several worst teams are in a lottery for the top picks. I don't know if the better teams can deal players to get someone's lottery spot or not. Maybe it changed even more? Is the worst record guaranteed #1 pick now, 2nd worst #2 etc.?

I understand the Celtics are widely recognized to be tanking the rest of a lost season to be guaranteed a shot at Oden or Durant, assuming they come out.

basically, the team with the worst record has a 1 in 4 chance of getting first pick. Its a lottery for position among non-playoff teams. Each team has a chance, but each team's chance gets lower and lower the further they are from worst record.

In the NFL, however, the worst performing team of non-playoff teams has first pick. And then it goes in reverse order of record, followed by playoff teams in reverse order of how they performed. Thus, the Bears will have second to last and the Colts will have last.


Although I think the accusations of "tanking" that have surfaced in the NBA lately are, like the OP suggested, just top-performing teams trying to grab the best draft picks. It is reminiscent of "welfare queen" myths.

There was a big stink about it being fixed because the Knicks got Ewing in that draft.

ON EDIT: Loos like the lottery rules have been changed a few times since its inception, last time in '95.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Draft_Lottery

- as

the top pick two years in a row despite having only one ping pong ball in the hat?

how very marketable for them, to wind up with the hometown boy...

and for the NBA/Nike if he were on a Lakers or Knicks team that was an actual threat to win the title (okay scratch the Knicks but I'm talking about big markets) than the "hometown" boy appeal of his being on Cleveland.

Of course the LeBron/Nike megahype machine transcends whatever city he might play for, but still... I don't really see how anyone benefits much money wise from LeBron being in Cleveland, so I just see that as a legit scenario where one of the worst teams got the top pick and picked a great player, who happens to be from there and has an incentive to stay around.

That having been said, I don't see him staying there much longer if they can't get a better supporting cast. It would be sad for me if he went to the Lakers or wherever. I like it when long suffering sports teams and cities get better or win a title.

On Edit: The Orlando situation was different, because if I recall the issue was they got the top pick TWO years in a row, getting Penny Hardaway one year and Shaq the next (or maybe the reverse order), raising suspicion of rigging the lottery to pimp the new expansion team. I was SO glad when Hakeem and the Rockets SWEPT that Magic team out of the finals.

you don't think the league wanted him in NY or Chicago?

The Bulls will make the playoffs but could have a lottery pick this year because they have the Knicks pick because of the Eddy Curry trade.

The stupid ping pong blls for the NBA teams who dont make the playoffs and how the NFL does it right, imo, by giving the shittiest team the #1 pick and the best team the 32nd pick.

it just makes sense the way the NFL does it, not some game of chance..

yet you say that the NFL does it right.

Sliming Jeff Van Gundy as a Republican is laughable.

I guess some just see things they don't agree with and need to label it as 'Republicanism.' Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

- as

no salary cap, top teams are the top spenders (with some exceptions each way, but not many), little or no parity.

I think sports (team as well as individual) serve an important psychological function in society. It seems like ages ago now that sports used to have winners and losers. Lately, keeping score at youth soccer matches, baseball games, football games and other events has been frowned upon due to the notion that a youngster's self-esteem will suffer if they happen to be on the losing end of a match, tournament, or game. I think this does a disservice to youth who happen to have athletic proclivity and a love for one sport or another. Removing the score from the mix allows certain individuals to feel they can work less hard and earn the same rewards. I also think this philosophy extends to life in general, with negative results.

In the larger picture, here's why I think sport is important: Contrast sports with Life...

In sport, if you or your team loses today, you return to the contest another day and try a little harder. Rules are such that on any given day, any individual or team can best the other in whatever contest they're competing in. If you or your team break the rules, you or your team suffers some kind of penalty or punishment that simply makes the game a little harder momentarily, but overcoming it is really not that hard. The bottom line here for me is that an individual or team can LOSE, but return to the contest and become champion of their sport if they want it bad enough. I think this truth attracts those who might be looking for a distraction from their daily grind, worries, and fears.

Escapism is what sports is all about, IMHO. It allows me to grab a beer, sit with a few friends (male AND female) and live vicariously through someone whose strength and coordination I wasn't blessed with while they do things I could never have done on my BEST day. I get to watch bitter rivals meet on a playing field with the goal of exploiting the weakness of their opponent in an effort to rise to the pinnacle of their profession. I get to have heated arguments about whose team or player is best, and at the end of the day, still give my guests a handshake and a hug when they leave.

Life, on the other hand, is much more serious. Lose at the Game of Life and you might be losing your wife, your job, your children, your health, or any number of other cherished things. Break the rules and the penalty might be imprisonment or death, or the punishment might be so expensive that you're forced into bankruptcy and ruin. In the Game of Life, EVERYONE is a loser after the final tick of the clock. That's a bitter pill.

So, this uneducated, uncultured middle-aged mixed-race male will continue to embrace sports as an escape from the daily trials and tribulations that someone like me faces. In my own mind, I'll always be young, strong, and athletic. I'll escape to that place where I can swing a bat, catch a football, guide a 3500lb bullet around an oval track at 200 mph, or hit a golf ball 350 yards straight and true... and be one of them, for just one more day.

Long Live Sports!

Tanking is a problem. The top teams having a shot at the number 1 pick is bogus.

all teams have an even pick at the top choice, but if you get it, you can't trade it, and you are required to hire Jeff van Gundy to coach. that should about even it out.

seriously though, I am opposed to the concept of a draft. with a hard salary cap like in the NBA, a draft is irrelevant. give every team one first round slot and one second round slot, not to be paid above a certain scale (much similar to now)and let them compete for talent. Look at the likely top two picks from this year's draft, Durant and Odom. Would Durant go to a place like the Lakers, to play behind Kobe? or would he go to a team with a system and a history of developing younger players? think he'd sign to play in Dallas behind Nowitzki? unlikely. and teams with a tradition of buring through players, like the Clippers, would have trouble signing anyone good until they proved they could do good things with them. Maybe Odom is willing to take a much lower salary to play for a winner without any cap room? shoudn't that be his choice?

baseball is about as unregulated as it gets. And in most cases, you don't find players willing to take a pay cut to play for a winning team. Of course, if its a difference between $100 million in Baltimore and $80 million for the Yankees, then the choice should be obvious. But usually the good players get both worlds, they get the huge salary and get to play for a winner.

So to expand it to all teams would mean more balls. The worst would have 30 lottery balls and the best would have 1 lottery balls.

Some teams are always good but never great and always are stuck with like the 12th pick. Maybe this is fair to them to get out of the rut.