One of the biggest problems in the NBA is tanking. With thirty teams vying for only sixteen playoff spots, some squads are left out of the picture early in the season. With no hopes of a post-season appearance, many of these squads begin planning for the next season in December and January. The only problem with this sort of future preparation is that the NBA season is eighty-two games long and fans pay to see overpaid athletes play as hard as they can every night.

The problem arises with the reward system currently set-up in the NBA. All teams that don’t make the playoffs are given the chance to win the number one draft pick in a “lottery.” Teams that have more losses are given a greater probability to win this coveted pick. Thus it behooves every team outside of the playoff picture to lose as many games as possible, so as to bring back the best talent in the offseason.

The media always refers to NBA teams and the league as a whole as a business first. A venue to make money by entertaining millions of sports fans. But how is a team, a business, doing its job when it enters an arena intentionally looking to lose games? Going even further, what business industry ever rewards a group that fails, whether intentional or not?

The flawed lottery system currently used by the NBA is clearly a major problem with the sport. While it is reasonable to allow teams that do not have winning records first dibs on the best players out of college, it is not a good idea to quantify a team’s talent based solely on wins and losses. How many times have players on bad teams sat out with minor injuries? How many times have coaches sat crucial players on the bench during fourth quarter stretch runs? The fact is that as long as the NBA rewards losing, all they will get is half the league looking to lose.

Altogether, this system makes the regular season a bit of a joke. Inflated win totals for the best teams in the league can be seen as a cause of so many franchises not playing as hard as they could.

But how do we solve this problem? The answer is simple. Stop giving the teams with the most losses the best chance to win the number one pick.

Yes it is a drastic change, but all fourteen teams that finish out of the playoffs, whether they have forty wins or twenty wins, should have an equal shot of winning the lottery. By taking out the emphasis on losing games, franchises should return to their winning ways almost immediately. After all, the fans hate losing teams, players hate being on losing teams, and coaches hate the negative atmosphere consistent losing creates.

Sure there might still be some situations in which teams still give up games. A league-wide attitude is hard to change in one year. But for the most part, the NBA should see thirty teams playing eighty two games as hard as they can, fighting for as many wins as possible.

And in the end, isn’t that what everyone pays to see?