New NBA Commissioner Has A Brilliant Explanation For Why Tanking Is Okay
Patrick McDermott/Getty Images
At a conference last week, new NBA commissioner Adam Silver was unapologetic in his defense of the tanking as a long-term strategy.
Silver's brilliant explanation (via USA Today):
"You look at any business, you look at short-term results and long-term results. And if you told a business, if somebody told you a business was going to operate on a quarter-by-quarter [basis], you'd say, 'That's not the way to operate a business.' You'd say, 'You need a strategy. You need to look at the long-term.' And I think what this organization is doing is absolutely the right thing. What they're doing is planning for the future and building an organization from the ground level up.
"And so, if you look at what's happened here over the last several years, it's badly needed. Somebody needs a plan. Somebody needs a vision to win here. And I think that's what's happening."
There is no question that the Sixers have set themselves up to fail in 2014. The evidence:
- They just traded two of their best players, Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes, for almost nothing.
- They're actually below the salary floor - the minimum amount of cash a team must spend on player salaries.
- Their top pick from the 2013 NBA Draft, Nerlens Noel, isn't playing because of a knee injury sustained over a year ago.
- Ten of the 15 players on the roster have two or fewer years of NBA experience.
There is a difference between this sort of high-level strategic tanking and losing individual games on purpose.
It's not like the Sixers coach is ordering players to miss shots. This isn't a 2012 Olympic badminton situation.
The Sixers have a long-term plan. That plan is to amass high draft picks, build a team from the ground up, and compete for a championship a few years down the line.
What we call tanking is just long-term planning. It looks bad in the short term, but it's a vastly more intelligent way to build a team than simply planning year-to-year.
- US buys 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says
- 2 states where home prices are falling because there are too many houses and not enough buyers
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- Foreign tourist arrivals in India will cross pre-pandemic level in 2024
- Upcoming smartphones launching in India in May 2024
- Markets rebound in early trade amid global rally, buying in ICICI Bank and Reliance
- Women in Leadership
- Rupee declines 5 paise to 83.43 against US dollar in early trade
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market