Toward the end of the season, a group of Philadelphia 76ers fans gathered together to generate a petition drive to ask the NBA to create a disincentive for losing and change the NBA’s Draft Lottery system.
It did not call for any specific proposal replacing the current Lottery structure, although it offered some suggestions including the Lottery Wheel idea that was floated around in the middle of the season.
After receiving hundreds of signatures on its online petition (still open by the way if you want to add your name), the group turned the petition into the NBA’s offices in New York with a letter for Adam Silver.
The movement’s found sent out the following note to signees this weekend:
We dropped off all of your signatures to the NBA HQ in NYC earlier this morning [Tuesday], in time for this week’s draft. We also included a letter to Commissioner Silver demanding immediate reform and a follow-up meeting with representatives of YOU – concerned NBA fans.
While we wait for the NBA’s response, let’s keep growing this campaign.
There will be lots of excitement for Cavs, Bucks, and Sixers fans on Thursday. There’s little doubt these top picks will help them become better next season. Unfortunately, there’s a pretty poor record when it comes to tanking for a savior, and many other teams watched a season of tanking and now need to stomach the top players coming off the board.
Let’s stop the tanking and reform the NBA Draft Lottery.
The petition drive bemoans the fact fans were cheering for their teams to lose and that the end of the season became an embarrassing display of basketball for which fans would have to pay full price to see. Teams would and do seem to throw away entire seasons on the hope of getting only a 25 percent chance at winning the Draft Lottery.
This year, it did not work out for the Bucks, as they ended up with the second pick and the Cavaliers defied the odds to win the lottery for the second straight year.
Before the Draft Lottery, Drew Cohen joined me on the Orlando Magic Daily Podcast to discuss the petition movement and what sparked him to start it:
Lots of teams will be putting a lot of hope in the NBA Draft tomorrow. Whole seasons have been building up to this point. Another miss could send several teams back into the lottery pot next year. And could mean trouble for season ticket holders and their investments.
