John Nieman
As we are in the playoff season for two of our country’s top four sports, basketball and hockey, and beginning our third sport, baseball, I am drawn to the difference between how we decide championships here in the United States as opposed to the rest of the world.
In basketball and hockey, the teams play scores of regular season games to determine playoff position and draft picks. In football–while certainly fewer games–it is the same. Can anyone other than the most diehard sports fan say who won the most games last season in baseball, basketball, football and hockey? And if you are a team that realizes during the season that you are probably not going to make the playoffs or, if you do, are probably not going to go far, the only incentive that is left is to do poorly so that you can get a good draft choice.
This brings me to what I believe is the biggest unspoken scandal in sport: tankers. Teams don’t even attempt to hide, and in fact, seem to be proud of the fact that they are intentionally losing games in order to increase their chances for a high draft pick.
The NBA is clearly the most guilty. I can’t imagine the mindset of players who are either explicitly or implicitly instructed to lose games. And they are asked to lose these games so that the team can get players who are better than they are. It is corrupt.
Of course, this does not even address the issue of the integrity of the regular season. Playoff-bound teams whose schedule includes a majority of tanking teams certainly have an unfair advantage over other teams. Individual statistics are impacted.
One would think this is unacceptable, but the league does not appear to do anything. Fans of the teams that are tanking either delude themselves into thinking that this is for the future of the team and/or are satisfied with being able to enjoy spectacular performances by opposing players going against defenders who are playing to lose.
One of the most vivid memories of my youth was in 7th grade when, after I’d had a particularly bad game at catcher, the discussion of the team and coach was about who we could get to play catcher. This was well over 60 years ago and it is burned into my memory. And so I can’t comprehend what professional athletes, who have been at the top of the profession, must feel when put in the position of intentionally losing games so that they can be replaced.
Rather than just bemoan the situation, I have some suggestions:
For Major League Baseball, restore the integrity of the American and National leagues. Every team in each league plays every other team in their league an equal amount of games. The winners of the American League play the winners of the National League in the World Series. The remaining teams participate in a playoff and the winner of the playoffs plays the winner of the World Series at the beginning of the next season. Interleague play can continue, but the results are not counted in the standings and are mostly regular season exhibitions.
The NBA is now clearly the most corrupt. One way to fix the tanking could be to have the draft order be fixed by having the teams who fail to make the playoff pick in order of their regular season finish with the team with the best record picking first. Then the only tanking would be with teams who are trying to get in the playoffs. This would be offset by teams fighting to get higher up in the standings throughout the season.
Most everyone is happy with the way the NFL and NHL conduct their seasons and so I have no quarrel.
There are probably a myriad of reasons why these and other suggestions are unworkable, but clearly something has to be done. The NBA is becoming a group of players rather than a league of teams. The showcasing of individual performances has overtaken game results.
My suggestions for Major League Baseball undoubtedly spring from my nostalgic memories of getting the paper each morning and checking the standings in the American and National leagues, but the situation in the NBA is morally unacceptable for any true sports fan.
In the area of morality, I guess there is supposed to be some viewpoint with regards to the Patriots head coach and the sports reporter, but I can’t really think of one. Perhaps next month or sometime in the future when it appears relevant to me.
Most relevant to me at this point in my life: Fat Boy Index: 244