Last week I posted with a topic line, “The Celtics must tank again and again…"
At the time I wrote it I was quite serious. I had just watched the Celtics get annihilated by the Warriors. This is a team that spent years losing and ended up with high draft picks and very good players. I thought the Celtics should do the same in order to get the players they need to win. One way to do that is to tank.
Even before that game I literally wanted the team to lose on purpose in order to get a higher position in this year’s NBA draft. Basically, my thoughts mirror what I had read in a recent post. The writer reminded us of state of the Celtics circa mid-1990’s. These teams played hard only to end up with mid-first round picks and stayed in perpetual purgatory. On the other hand, in the late 2000’s tanking lead to winning seasons and happiness. Winning long-term via tanking made sense.
As I watched the games over the weekend I witnessed Celtics winning two games. Part of me was thinking, this is good and yet another part of myself is screaming; “Stevens, play Babb, Johnson and Anthony!….. I implore you!!!” Winning surely wasn't satisfying. I preferred the team to lose. I’m sure many of us felt the same. (Not all)
Today, I was thinking about the team and tanking. This was the first time I seriously thought about what it means to tank. My mind turned to Pete Rose and his gambling problems and how he ended up getting kicked out of baseball because of it. He wasn't accused of throwing games that I can recall. It was simply the betting on his team and other teams that brought about his demise.
Then, I began to think about actual situations where players lost on purpose, e.g., the Chicago White Sox in the early part of the last century, the point shaving NYC basketball scandal in the early 50’s, local point shaving scandals at BC in the late 70’s and in boxing who knows how many matches have been fixed.
Well anyways, what is my point? I thought to myself, it’s easy for me and many of us to say, out loud or in pixels, “the Celtics should tank for the long-term good of the team”. But, what about the reality of tanking? Isn't it basically the same as throwing games?
The thought of doing such a thing when I played or coached never crossed my mind. Why now is it okay for a team to tank where I would never dream of doing it personally?
Shouldn’t we expect professional athletes and coaches be held to the same high standards we expect from ourselves. For some reason, the word “tanking” seems to sanitize everything. In reality it’s just another way of saying “throwing games”.
Even though I have been an avid proponent for tanking, now I feel it’s not the right thing to do. Will I change my mind again if they keep winning and end up in the same position of the 90’s? Who knows, I hope not.
What about yourself, if you are proponent of tanking (like I have been) and if you were a player or manager, would you be willing to throw games (tank) in order to get some long-term team benefit?
