Teams that finish in the bottom four of the Premier League have a 14% chance of getting the first pick in the draft. But with every place you climb, your chances of acquiring a top pick and turning everything around actually deteriorate. So what would you do in this scenario? Tell your players to keep fighting and maybe edge up a place or two? Or would you discreetly try to lose for Lamine or collapse for Cubarsi by resting big names and letting sporting gravity take its course?
The NBA has thrown the kitchen sink at its tanking problem over the years. They flattened the lottery odds. They invented a tournament to incentivize regular-season games. They've levied fines, tried public shaming, and probably discussed relegation in a dark room in Secaucus, New Jersey. (Okay, maybe not that last one, but they should.) None of it has worked.
