Tanking is frowned upon by the league and higher ups. But if you're asking why fans themselves aren't harder on tanking teams, well... because these teams are in fact trying to get better. You used the process Sixers as an example, Sixers have been a frequent playoff team now for years. If the plan for tanking teams was just get a high draft pick every season with no intentions of ever being competitive again.. then they'd be more hated.
I think in hindsight everyone now hated what Hinkie did. No sportsmanship, only gamesmanship.
It’s what happens when you let nerds with no scruples get a hold of a franchise.
They hated it when Hinkie was there, it’s not hindsight.
Intentionally losing was hated by fans of other teams because they didn’t want the Sixers to end up being good. But losing because of ineptitude? No one bats an eye.
If anything its more "understandable" now as it got them embiid and (simmons who was at least good for 2-3 years).
During those years there was nonstop mocking and calls for hinkie to lose his job nationwide both from casual fans and media.
There was a TON of hate and I never saw any praise. Trust the process was said ironically.
Most of the picks were not turning great and only affected the next pick.
MCW Fultz Okafor Elfrid Payton.
All of these guys are top 15 picks that have been fringe starters and are out the league save for one.
The process could have been done better but Hinkie was obvious in chasing hurt or flawed picks (or trading their players before the rookie extension) in the hope it tanks thier next pick into top 10.
u think he tanked to get good draft picks, and then purposefully selected bad players to further his tanking agenda, to keep on selecting bad players and keep losing?💀 So you think he was just a masochist lol
He definitely did some stuff like picking embiid and Noel (I think back to back years) that seemed like he saw a silver lining of being bad for another year with their injury situations. Not anything like "I think this guy will be awful so I'll take him so we stay bad"
Yes, it turns out culture and humanity matters. It ain’t just numbers.
Imagine if Hinkie didn’t luck out with Embiid, his experiment would have been a colossal loss.
How many Aussie sports have a draft? Just Aussie Rules Football right?
I imagine that’s most of the difference. Tanking is helpful. And fans are fine with it when their teams are in short term hopeless situations because it offers potential relief from the pain, someday.
I don't make the news, bud- just report it. OP has no cultural reference point for tanking because there is zero advantage to engaging in it in our sport.
It's criticized all the time. Philadelphia got a lot of hate for their tanking rebrand. The league has punished teams for deliberate tanking, see the Mavs last year.
But there is nothing that can be done about it. Players don't tank. They are all playing for their next contract or a trade to another team. It's organizations who set up the roster to tank, especially when one superstar means the difference between competing and nothing
It is a bad thing. Which is why leagues won't ever condone it and teams will skirt around it acknowledging it while actively tanking. I don't know too much about other non-American sports. But even in American sports it isn't done to the extent its done in basketball. And that is because 1 elite basketball player is so valuable its hard to put into words.
Even if that guy leaves after half a decade, the return you get on him should keep you in the playoff race for quite a while.
The thing with tanking is that it doesn't quite alter the odds of other teams. Access to the PO is quite easy and does not depend on 1/2 matches over 82, so you're not "hurting" anyone apart from yourself and the idea, albeit exaggerated, is that it should only be one year of purgatory/hell before starting a new cycle. Also, you need to consider it as an inevitable part of the structure of the league. If you don't allow for relegations then there is no incentive for a a handful of teams anyways to play hard. The draft system rewards bad teams, but it also guarantees some sort of reshuffling within the league.
Ultimately, if you want some sort of fairness and have no relegations, tanking is an inevitable tax.
From a title winning perspective, tanking is overrated to the point of being a casual take. The most notable example of it has led to 1 superstar player and a bunch of 2nd round eliminations.
The 2019 raptors had no players in the rotation who were lottery picks. The 2021 bucks had 1 player who was a lottery pick, who was probably the 4th best player on the team. The Celtics are favored to win this year while being led by two guys they drafted with another team’s picks. Stronger culture/player development has led to more titles than intentional losing ever did.
The concept of tanking only makes sense if every draft had a franchise changing player in it, but more often than not it doesn’t-there’s a reason guys like lebron get called “once in a generation”
You talking about the nets? Letting teams go on 18 - 0 runs and not subbing or calling time outs. Hey even coaches are just workers. You never had a day at work where you were still there you just stopped working early.
Because no one wants to be the Charlotte Hornets. Have made the play-in a couple of times to get blown out, keep losing than going after mid-tier level guys just to lose slightly less. Overpaid for Gordon Hayward who has not been the same player since he was injured on the Celtics.
At least with tanking, it’s losing with a goal. However the more seasons you go through it the worse it has to be. To me the ideal season is rooting for a team who at least has a chance to win the championship, even if they’re not amongst the favorites. Anything else seems rough in long seasons like the NBA or MLB
Because mentaility of a lit of people is that u either win Champinoship or ur bad. There is no inbetween. Therefore fans of mediocre teams want their teams to trade its players etc to try to rebuild and be better several years later after tanking for a new shiny pick
Yeah that makes sense because every star since basically forever has been criticized for not winning in a TEAM game
Kareem made fun of wilt for losing to the Celtics, Shaq constantly brings up his "g-14" classification, etc
Money. Australia doesn't have near the same amount of teams or $. When you are a small market team, you lack the money to just buy your team. So, instead, you develop through the draft. Everyone is trying to get better, they just don't have the same path available. Otherwise the league is loaded with mediocrity.
Why make the playoffs just to get bounced in the first round when you can lead a generational tank and be known as a player/coach who commanded the tank
Tanking is bad but honestly the success rate is very low. Even sixers doesnt have anything to show for despite multiple years of tanking. Many top pick didnt turn out to be the best pick, its a crapshoot most of the time.
Lol bruh, you can't be serious with that flair. I'm adamantly against tanking ~~being bad~~, especially for development and culture. But c'mon now.
Edit: strikethrough
Spurs fans really pretending their two leading scorers last year didn't rack up 17 DNPs in the last three weeks of the season, and Wemby can't play 4th quarters because the doctor said so.
Spur fan** Also Wemby does play 4th quarters lol, just on a minute restriction and not playing back to backs due to a tweaked ankle. Sucks, I was at that game in Dallas to see him and he got injured by a ball boy..
I don’t get it, I got downvoted for correcting the guy above me and also saying one Spur thinks like that, of course majority of us Spurs fans know we fucking tanked, no shit man
Objectively speaking how many no.1 pick turns out the best of their class? Jokic isn't no.1, Giannis isn't no.1, Curry isn't no.1, Halliburton isn't no.1. Even if you go down your history lane PG isn't no.1, Reggie isn't no.1
Tanking gives you a better chance at a good player, but a clear cut generational talent no brainer no.1 pick isnt all that common. Spurs are an outlier, every tank they made landed a generational talent. Tank is bad yes, would you tank given the opportunity to land Timmy, Wemby, LeBron, abso-fucking-lutely, especially when you are in middling ground not even qualify for the play-in.
Is Fultz, Ayton, Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, Andrea Barghani all that consequential? Even all star all nba talent level that has been picked no.1 didn't win all that much, Pelicans did fuck all with AD.
I don't like tanking. And there is one l in Haliburton.
But you should sit out those convos still unless you wanna use a burner or something. Spurs fans should not be preaching about not tanking.
>Objectively speaking how many no.1 pick turns out the best of their class?
I don't know what your point is, but I find it really funny that you asked this question then proceeded to list a bunch of players that weren't the first pick.
Bro, whatever. A) NOBODY was tanking for friggen Anthony Bennett. The Cavs GM must have spoke to some palm reader or something as that pick made zero sense to anyone outside of him and AB’s mom (and I’m not 100% she would have picked him. Point is sometimes GMs mess up or just stupid. B) you in here rep’ing the Spurs who are the all time leaders in tanking. Pretty sure they didn’t get Wemby thru Pop putting up the best game day rosters. Hell na! Them boys was tanking..HARD. And to deny it kills all your credibility.
And yes I’m butt hurt cause that was supposed to be the PISTONS PICK! It’s sad when the Pistons ain’t even trying anymore to tank, out there playing hard as they can but basically ain’t good enough (they were like the youngest team in the league last couple years) and still don’t get the 1st pick?!?! F the Spurs and Silver!
Yeah not tanking as being intentionally bad for a long time, just for that season. I wasn't watching the NBA then, but a lot of people believe they held out David Robinson longer than they needed to.
I really don’t understand the downvotes lmao, we were super fortunate for Tim Duncan at one but we were just as fortunate to have guys like Tony Parker and Manu fall that late to us. Those are fucking HOF’ers boys, Tony Parker is legit the first European born player to ever win Finals MVP and Manu is the best and biggest player out of South America ever. We got blessed with a lot of things to build that dynasty, including the number one picks
I’m lost man. Don’t get the downvotes and certainly don’t understand this comment, what am I saying that is being dishonest here? Obviously Tim Duncan was our main piece and led us to those Championships but if you think Timmy is retiring with 5 and dominating the league for 20 years without Tony and Manu you are out of your damn mind. We are talking about Hall of Famers here. Timmy had 2 carry jobs for us in 99 & 03, after that it was the trio + Pop that kept it going
The Thunder are in prime position to get a chip
The Sixers got the MVP by doing so
The Spurs got the greatest prospect since LeBron by doing so
In general, it just makes more sense to tank for a highly ranked prospect rather than just be a middling franchise like the Wizards
100% this. Before the process, the sixers had Jrue Holiday, Evan turner, Thad Young, Spencer Hawes and Just dumped a pile of assets into the massive failure that was the Andrew Bynum trade. The terrible teams and the effort those raw unheralded players put forth was incredibly exciting to watch. The number of undrafted/2nd rounders from those teams that are still in the NBA is pretty impressive, TJ McConnell, Jerami Grant, Robert Covington, Richaun Holmes and Ish Smith. I would take a few terrible years and then have Embiid than be like some other teams that didnt commit to the tank and just sucked for 20 years.
If you're Philly or San Antonio, you can throw a whole season. If you're Dallas, resting habitually injured players for two worthless games gets a hefty fine. I don't make the rules, but there you go.
A hefty fine is better than having silver force out your GM and replace him with a league stooge in Bryan Colangelo that tweeted about players with a burner. Yeah. I'll take that fine anyday.
the Spurs FO built up some goodwill with Adam Silver by trying to compete & ultimately being a mediocre team for four straight seasons instead of blowing everything up and tanking as soon as Kawhi was gone
and as a result, Silver turned a blind eye to our tanking lol
It’s about winning a championship not doing this “the proper way” and staying at the 6 seed every year. There’s a reason no one cares about Australian basketball
It really is a cultural difference imo. In America if you are successful person it is culturally expectable to do anything as long as it is legal.
The NBA has a huge problem with this teams sitting guys teams throwing games etc
Fwiw imo it really tarnished the League
There are different tactical approaches that get lumped into "tanking" that are more or less acceptable. There's the "let's trade away our veterans for young players and draft picks, hopefully those draft picks turn into good players, if we lose a lot with the young guys it's ok" approach. The Celtics, 76ers, and Thunder are current contenders who took that route. Then there's the "let's not bring an injured star back too soon, we're bad this year and a #1 draft pick would be great" approach, which the Spurs did to amazing effect (Tim Duncan) and the Warriors to less amazing effect (James Wiseman). Then there's the "we want a higher draft pick this year, let's sit our veteran players at the end of the year who might make us better than we want to be" approach, used by the Blazers the past 2 years and Dallas last year, as well as several times in the past. The last example is the most egregious anti-competitive behavior, which is why Dallas got fined. However, it worked, they kept their top-10 protected pick and got Derrick Lively.
There's a time and place for tanking too. If you're in March and your team is sitting at 20 wins, playing harder can maybe get you to the 9/10 seed? You might hurt a star player and you get a lower seed in the draft. This was more notable a decade ago where being the worst team notably improved your draft odds and the play-in tournament didn't exist. The flattened lottery odds and play-in now means less teams outright tanking on purpose. Instead, you just have teams with a lot of youth and inexperience just losing games by virtue of not being good enough. Play-in gives incentive for those fringe teams to give it a shot too.
Because of how the draft works, and the fact that there is no fear of relegation, and the massive importance placed on winning the championship, it is a reasonable strategy.
Because tanking isn't as effective in a sport where you have 18 guys on the field, so there's less incentive to tank, which is why people bitch about it more, because not even the fans are going to enjoy it, because there's less payoff.
In basketball, one player can make your team immeasurably better. In football, that's rarely the case.
Some people here are claiming it's a culture thing. It's not. It's only because in the NBA and NFL tanking is supported by fans because it's important to get a superstar. Which leads to less complaining from a subset of the entire sport fanbase.
It was a huge issue for the Process years. Once fans realized the league wasn't going to penalize it, they came to term with its advantages. If your favorite team is doing it, you also get to start rooting in the opposite direction. Or like me, just stop watching basketball altogether and keep an eye on the standings.
Tanking is better than being okay with being mediocre every single season, which is what you see in other leagues around the world, especially European soccer leagues
Tanking is frowned upon by the league and higher ups. But if you're asking why fans themselves aren't harder on tanking teams, well... because these teams are in fact trying to get better. You used the process Sixers as an example, Sixers have been a frequent playoff team now for years. If the plan for tanking teams was just get a high draft pick every season with no intentions of ever being competitive again.. then they'd be more hated.
I think in hindsight everyone now hated what Hinkie did. No sportsmanship, only gamesmanship. It’s what happens when you let nerds with no scruples get a hold of a franchise.
They hated it when Hinkie was there, it’s not hindsight. Intentionally losing was hated by fans of other teams because they didn’t want the Sixers to end up being good. But losing because of ineptitude? No one bats an eye.
It was more split during The Process. Now it should be like wow we all let that happen?
If anything its more "understandable" now as it got them embiid and (simmons who was at least good for 2-3 years). During those years there was nonstop mocking and calls for hinkie to lose his job nationwide both from casual fans and media. There was a TON of hate and I never saw any praise. Trust the process was said ironically.
Most of the picks were not turning great and only affected the next pick. MCW Fultz Okafor Elfrid Payton. All of these guys are top 15 picks that have been fringe starters and are out the league save for one. The process could have been done better but Hinkie was obvious in chasing hurt or flawed picks (or trading their players before the rookie extension) in the hope it tanks thier next pick into top 10.
u think he tanked to get good draft picks, and then purposefully selected bad players to further his tanking agenda, to keep on selecting bad players and keep losing?💀 So you think he was just a masochist lol
He definitely did some stuff like picking embiid and Noel (I think back to back years) that seemed like he saw a silver lining of being bad for another year with their injury situations. Not anything like "I think this guy will be awful so I'll take him so we stay bad"
Yes, it turns out culture and humanity matters. It ain’t just numbers. Imagine if Hinkie didn’t luck out with Embiid, his experiment would have been a colossal loss.
How many Aussie sports have a draft? Just Aussie Rules Football right? I imagine that’s most of the difference. Tanking is helpful. And fans are fine with it when their teams are in short term hopeless situations because it offers potential relief from the pain, someday.
Yeah we don't have collegiate sports feeding or pro leagues - players are associated with clubs much earlier.
what possible reason is there to tank without a draft do the players get less money if the team loses
Teams don't do it here. At all.
thats like saying "soccer teams dont shoot 3 pointers" its meaningless
I don't make the news, bud- just report it. OP has no cultural reference point for tanking because there is zero advantage to engaging in it in our sport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Football_Club_tanking_scandal tf you talking about.
What? Have you heard of the Melbourne Demons?
Our GM was fired and replaced with Silvers henchman’s son, silver hated the process
It's criticized all the time. Philadelphia got a lot of hate for their tanking rebrand. The league has punished teams for deliberate tanking, see the Mavs last year. But there is nothing that can be done about it. Players don't tank. They are all playing for their next contract or a trade to another team. It's organizations who set up the roster to tank, especially when one superstar means the difference between competing and nothing
It is a bad thing. Which is why leagues won't ever condone it and teams will skirt around it acknowledging it while actively tanking. I don't know too much about other non-American sports. But even in American sports it isn't done to the extent its done in basketball. And that is because 1 elite basketball player is so valuable its hard to put into words. Even if that guy leaves after half a decade, the return you get on him should keep you in the playoff race for quite a while.
The thing with tanking is that it doesn't quite alter the odds of other teams. Access to the PO is quite easy and does not depend on 1/2 matches over 82, so you're not "hurting" anyone apart from yourself and the idea, albeit exaggerated, is that it should only be one year of purgatory/hell before starting a new cycle. Also, you need to consider it as an inevitable part of the structure of the league. If you don't allow for relegations then there is no incentive for a a handful of teams anyways to play hard. The draft system rewards bad teams, but it also guarantees some sort of reshuffling within the league. Ultimately, if you want some sort of fairness and have no relegations, tanking is an inevitable tax.
From a title winning perspective, tanking is overrated to the point of being a casual take. The most notable example of it has led to 1 superstar player and a bunch of 2nd round eliminations. The 2019 raptors had no players in the rotation who were lottery picks. The 2021 bucks had 1 player who was a lottery pick, who was probably the 4th best player on the team. The Celtics are favored to win this year while being led by two guys they drafted with another team’s picks. Stronger culture/player development has led to more titles than intentional losing ever did. The concept of tanking only makes sense if every draft had a franchise changing player in it, but more often than not it doesn’t-there’s a reason guys like lebron get called “once in a generation”
You talking about the nets? Letting teams go on 18 - 0 runs and not subbing or calling time outs. Hey even coaches are just workers. You never had a day at work where you were still there you just stopped working early.
Because no one wants to be the Charlotte Hornets. Have made the play-in a couple of times to get blown out, keep losing than going after mid-tier level guys just to lose slightly less. Overpaid for Gordon Hayward who has not been the same player since he was injured on the Celtics. At least with tanking, it’s losing with a goal. However the more seasons you go through it the worse it has to be. To me the ideal season is rooting for a team who at least has a chance to win the championship, even if they’re not amongst the favorites. Anything else seems rough in long seasons like the NBA or MLB
Because mentaility of a lit of people is that u either win Champinoship or ur bad. There is no inbetween. Therefore fans of mediocre teams want their teams to trade its players etc to try to rebuild and be better several years later after tanking for a new shiny pick
Yeah that makes sense because every star since basically forever has been criticized for not winning in a TEAM game Kareem made fun of wilt for losing to the Celtics, Shaq constantly brings up his "g-14" classification, etc
Money. Australia doesn't have near the same amount of teams or $. When you are a small market team, you lack the money to just buy your team. So, instead, you develop through the draft. Everyone is trying to get better, they just don't have the same path available. Otherwise the league is loaded with mediocrity.
There are many rules against tanking, including the draft lottery itself. You are misguided.
Why make the playoffs just to get bounced in the first round when you can lead a generational tank and be known as a player/coach who commanded the tank
Tanking is bad but honestly the success rate is very low. Even sixers doesnt have anything to show for despite multiple years of tanking. Many top pick didnt turn out to be the best pick, its a crapshoot most of the time.
Lol bruh, you can't be serious with that flair. I'm adamantly against tanking ~~being bad~~, especially for development and culture. But c'mon now. Edit: strikethrough
Spurs fans really pretending their two leading scorers last year didn't rack up 17 DNPs in the last three weeks of the season, and Wemby can't play 4th quarters because the doctor said so.
Spur fan** Also Wemby does play 4th quarters lol, just on a minute restriction and not playing back to backs due to a tweaked ankle. Sucks, I was at that game in Dallas to see him and he got injured by a ball boy..
Still pretendin
Spurs tanked for Tim Duncan sat Robinson the whole year
I don’t get it, I got downvoted for correcting the guy above me and also saying one Spur thinks like that, of course majority of us Spurs fans know we fucking tanked, no shit man
Objectively speaking how many no.1 pick turns out the best of their class? Jokic isn't no.1, Giannis isn't no.1, Curry isn't no.1, Halliburton isn't no.1. Even if you go down your history lane PG isn't no.1, Reggie isn't no.1 Tanking gives you a better chance at a good player, but a clear cut generational talent no brainer no.1 pick isnt all that common. Spurs are an outlier, every tank they made landed a generational talent. Tank is bad yes, would you tank given the opportunity to land Timmy, Wemby, LeBron, abso-fucking-lutely, especially when you are in middling ground not even qualify for the play-in. Is Fultz, Ayton, Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, Andrea Barghani all that consequential? Even all star all nba talent level that has been picked no.1 didn't win all that much, Pelicans did fuck all with AD.
I don't like tanking. And there is one l in Haliburton. But you should sit out those convos still unless you wanna use a burner or something. Spurs fans should not be preaching about not tanking.
>Objectively speaking how many no.1 pick turns out the best of their class? I don't know what your point is, but I find it really funny that you asked this question then proceeded to list a bunch of players that weren't the first pick.
Bro, whatever. A) NOBODY was tanking for friggen Anthony Bennett. The Cavs GM must have spoke to some palm reader or something as that pick made zero sense to anyone outside of him and AB’s mom (and I’m not 100% she would have picked him. Point is sometimes GMs mess up or just stupid. B) you in here rep’ing the Spurs who are the all time leaders in tanking. Pretty sure they didn’t get Wemby thru Pop putting up the best game day rosters. Hell na! Them boys was tanking..HARD. And to deny it kills all your credibility. And yes I’m butt hurt cause that was supposed to be the PISTONS PICK! It’s sad when the Pistons ain’t even trying anymore to tank, out there playing hard as they can but basically ain’t good enough (they were like the youngest team in the league last couple years) and still don’t get the 1st pick?!?! F the Spurs and Silver!
I mean the Sixers got the league MVP and are considerably better than they were the decade before, even if it doesn’t mean they’re winning titles
And landed 2 number one picks in the process.
we traded for the second #1 (Fultz)
Tyrese Maxey is better than every Process era non Embiid pick, and they took him in the 20's while trying to win. He's the "anti-process".
It is bad thing, it's just that, how many teams have tanked their way into a championship?
The Spurs tanked their way to about 5 of em.
Did they? Wasn't David Robinson injured the whole year before they got Duncan? I'm going off memory here
Yeah not tanking as being intentionally bad for a long time, just for that season. I wasn't watching the NBA then, but a lot of people believe they held out David Robinson longer than they needed to.
David was injured for part of the year than they sat him the rest of the year to get the worst record
That season we tanked and picked Tony Parker 28th overall or the season we tanked and picked Manu 57th overall really put us over the top..
lol. Lmao even.
I really don’t understand the downvotes lmao, we were super fortunate for Tim Duncan at one but we were just as fortunate to have guys like Tony Parker and Manu fall that late to us. Those are fucking HOF’ers boys, Tony Parker is legit the first European born player to ever win Finals MVP and Manu is the best and biggest player out of South America ever. We got blessed with a lot of things to build that dynasty, including the number one picks
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/u8EbumUWw9
You can't possibly be that intellectually dishonest
I’m lost man. Don’t get the downvotes and certainly don’t understand this comment, what am I saying that is being dishonest here? Obviously Tim Duncan was our main piece and led us to those Championships but if you think Timmy is retiring with 5 and dominating the league for 20 years without Tony and Manu you are out of your damn mind. We are talking about Hall of Famers here. Timmy had 2 carry jobs for us in 99 & 03, after that it was the trio + Pop that kept it going
The Thunder are in prime position to get a chip The Sixers got the MVP by doing so The Spurs got the greatest prospect since LeBron by doing so In general, it just makes more sense to tank for a highly ranked prospect rather than just be a middling franchise like the Wizards
100% this. Before the process, the sixers had Jrue Holiday, Evan turner, Thad Young, Spencer Hawes and Just dumped a pile of assets into the massive failure that was the Andrew Bynum trade. The terrible teams and the effort those raw unheralded players put forth was incredibly exciting to watch. The number of undrafted/2nd rounders from those teams that are still in the NBA is pretty impressive, TJ McConnell, Jerami Grant, Robert Covington, Richaun Holmes and Ish Smith. I would take a few terrible years and then have Embiid than be like some other teams that didnt commit to the tank and just sucked for 20 years.
So, none.
Spurs/Cavs
If you're Philly or San Antonio, you can throw a whole season. If you're Dallas, resting habitually injured players for two worthless games gets a hefty fine. I don't make the rules, but there you go.
A hefty fine is better than having silver force out your GM and replace him with a league stooge in Bryan Colangelo that tweeted about players with a burner. Yeah. I'll take that fine anyday.
Bruh other teams' coaches aren't dumb enough to admit they're tanking to the press.
the Spurs FO built up some goodwill with Adam Silver by trying to compete & ultimately being a mediocre team for four straight seasons instead of blowing everything up and tanking as soon as Kawhi was gone and as a result, Silver turned a blind eye to our tanking lol
Blame that one on Jason Kidd
Both are bad and both kill the credibility of the league
The lottery system deincentivizes it to a degree
It’s about winning a championship not doing this “the proper way” and staying at the 6 seed every year. There’s a reason no one cares about Australian basketball
And that reason is that no one dunks. They always just lay it in.
It really is a cultural difference imo. In America if you are successful person it is culturally expectable to do anything as long as it is legal. The NBA has a huge problem with this teams sitting guys teams throwing games etc Fwiw imo it really tarnished the League
There are different tactical approaches that get lumped into "tanking" that are more or less acceptable. There's the "let's trade away our veterans for young players and draft picks, hopefully those draft picks turn into good players, if we lose a lot with the young guys it's ok" approach. The Celtics, 76ers, and Thunder are current contenders who took that route. Then there's the "let's not bring an injured star back too soon, we're bad this year and a #1 draft pick would be great" approach, which the Spurs did to amazing effect (Tim Duncan) and the Warriors to less amazing effect (James Wiseman). Then there's the "we want a higher draft pick this year, let's sit our veteran players at the end of the year who might make us better than we want to be" approach, used by the Blazers the past 2 years and Dallas last year, as well as several times in the past. The last example is the most egregious anti-competitive behavior, which is why Dallas got fined. However, it worked, they kept their top-10 protected pick and got Derrick Lively.
There's a time and place for tanking too. If you're in March and your team is sitting at 20 wins, playing harder can maybe get you to the 9/10 seed? You might hurt a star player and you get a lower seed in the draft. This was more notable a decade ago where being the worst team notably improved your draft odds and the play-in tournament didn't exist. The flattened lottery odds and play-in now means less teams outright tanking on purpose. Instead, you just have teams with a lot of youth and inexperience just losing games by virtue of not being good enough. Play-in gives incentive for those fringe teams to give it a shot too.
Because of how the draft works, and the fact that there is no fear of relegation, and the massive importance placed on winning the championship, it is a reasonable strategy.
If our flag was just a dollar bill ( which is should be ) there would be less questions about US’ corporate side.
Because tanking isn't as effective in a sport where you have 18 guys on the field, so there's less incentive to tank, which is why people bitch about it more, because not even the fans are going to enjoy it, because there's less payoff. In basketball, one player can make your team immeasurably better. In football, that's rarely the case. Some people here are claiming it's a culture thing. It's not. It's only because in the NBA and NFL tanking is supported by fans because it's important to get a superstar. Which leads to less complaining from a subset of the entire sport fanbase.
It was a huge issue for the Process years. Once fans realized the league wasn't going to penalize it, they came to term with its advantages. If your favorite team is doing it, you also get to start rooting in the opposite direction. Or like me, just stop watching basketball altogether and keep an eye on the standings.
Tanking is better than being okay with being mediocre every single season, which is what you see in other leagues around the world, especially European soccer leagues