By: Jeff McDonough
Tank.
One may associate this word with warfare, or fish, or oil, or perhaps someone referred to as a “tank,” who can both withstand and mete out punishment. In basketball, however, the word connotes something entirely different. In the context of the NBA, the word “tank” doesn’t evoke the typical thoughts of something big, bulky and robust — unless we’re talking about the albatross the league now has on its hands. The phrase “tanking” as we know it, comes from the boxing parlance for throwing a fight, or to spell it out even further, losing on purpose. And tanking in the NBA has become a hot-button issue, both for fans who see it as something pernicious to the health of the game, and to those who don’t enjoy the NBA and cite this as one of their reasons.
There are those who see the merits of tanking, however, both in the stands and in NBA front offices. It’s a common narrative that pops up among fanbases in any draft-based sport: we’re already having a losing season, so I’d like us to be as bad as possible to ensure the best draft pick. We see that type of talk amongst fans going through a long, tough year and who want to look toward the future. But when a team starts out the season saying that their Plan A is to compete for the league’s worst record from the jump — whether they’re saying it explicitly or with their personnel decisions — that’s a much more radical way of looking toward the future.
Even if you only have the most opaque awareness of the NBA, you are likely familiar with the fact that the Philadelphia 76ers stink. They lose A LOT. They have gone 19-63 and 18-64 the last two seasons respectively, losing 11 more games than any other team in that span. In early 2014, they tied an NBA record for losing 26 consecutive games. So maybe you’re thinking, “Wow, it’s time to clean house in that organization.” Well, these on-court struggles actually coincide with when the new regime took over, and local fans and ownership alike aren’t even discouraged because they say that this is all part of “the process.” And that process seems to involve not trying to win basketball games.
