Credit To The Sixers For Being So Against Tanking That They Forced The Bulls To Beat Them
Tanking. It’s the act of purposefully losing games in order to drop your team as far back in the standings as possible with the end game being to receive the highest possible draft pick at the end of the season. It’s a cowardly move that is unfortunately becoming more and more prevalent in the world of professional sports. In my opinion, all the stat nerds are to blame because people don’t care about actual competition anymore. They just care about numbers and predictions and projections. But yeah. Tanking is a massive problem, especially in the NBA.
The Sixers are a team who would never do such a thing. They’re from Philadelphia. You think a team from Philly would ever just strategically quit on purpose? Hell no. This city is too blue collar for that. And while the rest of the world strokes their shafts to potential draft picks and tanks away, the Sixers are here to put an end to all of it. So when they have a game against the Chicago Bulls–a team with the 3rd worst record in the East and clearly tanking–this is what the Sixers do.
Oh what’s that? You thought you were going to come away with a respectable 1-point loss to one of the best teams in the conference which would not only be considered a moral victory for your team, but would also help you in your quest to land a better draft pick?
Yeah how about you hold that W, buddy.
That’s the thing. I’ve watched this clip time and time again. And the only reason I can come up with for why Mike Scott wouldn’t switch on to LaVine there is because the Sixers were forcing the Bulls to win a game. They were forcing the Bulls to put an end to their tank. So they give Zach LaVine a wide open lane with 4 seconds left to put a dagger in the game.
And you know what? That’s mighty big of the Sixers. I mean they’re in the middle of a playoff race right now where seeding is everything. And they’re willing to risk staying in that 4-spot just to make sure that teams aren’t out here tanking. It’s remarkably admirable.
P.S. – Tell Brett Brown to take a few weeks off and let’s just see how this team looks with Jimmy Butler as the coach.