what an f-in joke. Why dont they televise the actually lottery? I would be just as pissed as the Timberwolves president (who got fined for his comments) if i saw that the NBA just threw a bone to Cleveland and got screwed yet again.
It's the dumbest pre-draft ritual of any sport. Hockey also has a lottery, although that's far less important with a bigger talent pool to select from and a general rule of thumb that kids wait a few years before playing in the NHL. There is no reason to keep the worst team in the league from receiving the #1 overall pick. I guess you could argue that Cleveland was the worst overall... just in a different division and conference than the team with the worst record, but still. If a team is purposefully tanking its season, then the fans should either understand why or just not show up to games, harming them financially. I feel bad for teams like the Wolves who consistently get screwed. Look at the Bulls right now... any chance they're in the Eastern Conference Finals if they don't pick up the #1 overall in 2008 with a 1.7 percent chance that they should have acquired it?? Ridiculous. Oddly enough, it was Miami who should have gotten the pick, but they've improved through free agency (obviously). It was even worse in the 80s when it was unweighted. The Patrick Ewing fix.
I go back and forth on whether I think it is fixed. As a Mavs fan back in the early 90s, I watched year after year as we got screwed and watched Orlando get back-to-back 1st picks in the draft (to take Shaq and then trade the Webber pick for Anfernee Hardaway). The Spurs lottery win was always a bit suspect to me (the year they got Tim Duncan), but they won it the year the Celtics had the worst record. If the fix was in, the NBA would want the Celtics to be good. And even though the Patrick Ewing lottery is always pointed to as being fixed, look how many years during the 2000s the Knicks had a really bad record and never got one of the top 3 picks. I can certainly agree it is an absurd ritual. There are other ways the league can ensure that the teams do not throw games at the end of the year.
buster, I can guarantee that there's no way that the NBA wanted the Spurs to have the #1 pick in 1987 (David Robinson) or 1997 (Tim Duncan) since the small market teams don't get any breaks from David Stern and cronies. They were pure luck and saved the franchise from moving somewhere else. And this year the Cavs had two picks and a over a 21% chance of getting the #1.
Well, the reason I go back and forth on the Spurs, especially in 1997, is that the NBA was really marketing around David Robinson. He was such a good character guy that was in the Navy and was a tremendous talent on top of that. To give that team the best college player after an unfortunate injury to David Robinson caused them to have a terrible year is not completely out of the question. But it was the Celtics that lost out that year (they had the worst record in the NBA) so that makes me think it was not fixed. You could make an argument either way.
Blame the Rockets. they lost games on purpose just to get Hakeem. they even went so far as to not deny it. Here is how you fix it: The best team of the non playoff teams gets the #1 pick through a "tournament of losers". during the playoffs, the non qualifiers play a round robin tourney. This determines the draft order. You want #1, you play hard! This way, there is a "playoff" for the best pick.
But, if you really are the worst team, youprobably aren't going to.win that tourney, thereby ensuring that you continue being the worst.
I said "a" face of the NBA, not "the" face of the NBA. And if you don't think David Robinson was being sold by the NBA in his hey-day, then you need to go back and watch some hoops during that time period. He was not Jordan or anywhere even close to that, but he had his own following and was a very popular player (and pretty good to boot).
If anybody thinks the Spurs getting Duncan was fixed I think that is a very odd position. As mentioned, small market team and Robinson was not a guy the league would have been trying to build a team around to become the face of the league. Isn't there a theory out there that SA tanked the end of the 1997 season in order to get a good chance or landing Duncan?
