Forty-four straight losses. Forty-four. That's what the bottom 10 teams in the NBA have combined for, and folks, we need to talk about what's happening to the league.
Marc Stein reports that all of these teams - except New Orleans - control their first-round picks in June's draft. In other words, they have every incentive to lose, and they're doing exactly that. And it's killing the product on the floor.
Let me be clear: I hate tanking. I've always hated it. It goes against everything sports is supposed to be about. You compete. You try to win. You don't phone it in because losing helps your draft position. But that's exactly what's happening, and the NBA has created a system that rewards it.
Think about what this means for fans. If you bought season tickets for one of these 10 teams, you're watching your squad actively try to lose. Night after night. Game after game. That's not entertainment - that's disrespect.
And it's not just about this season. Teams are tanking for 2-3 years at a time, bottoming out completely, hoping to land multiple top-five picks that they can build around. The Philadelphia 76ers pioneered it with "The Process," and now every struggling franchise thinks that's the blueprint.
But here's the problem: it doesn't always work. For every Philadelphia that gets Joel Embiid, there's a Sacramento or Phoenix or Orlando that tanks for years and still can't figure it out. Draft picks are far from guaranteed, and while you're losing, you're also building a losing culture in your organization.
You know what actually works? Trying to win. Look at the Miami Heat. They never tank, they compete every year, and they develop players and stay relevant. The San Antonio Spurs have had one down stretch in 30 years. The Denver Nuggets never bottomed out - they built through smart drafting and player development.
The league needs to fix this. The lottery odds have already been flattened to reduce the incentive to tank, but clearly it's not enough. Maybe you need a tournament for draft positioning. Maybe you penalize teams that lose too many games in a row. I don't know the answer, but something has to change.
Forty-four straight combined losses is an embarrassment. It's bad for the fans in those cities, it's bad for the players who are competing but trapped on awful teams, and it's bad for the league's credibility.
I get that rebuilding is necessary sometimes. Not every team can compete for a championship every year. But there's a difference between rebuilding and tanking, and right now, 10 teams have crossed that line.
The NBA is the best basketball league in the world, with the most talented players on the planet. But when a third of your league is actively trying to lose, that's a problem. A big one.
That's what sports is all about, folks. Competition. Effort. Pride. And right now, 10 teams have abandoned all three.
