The best part of the NBA season is upon us. Normally, the end of the season means teams giving one hundred percent in every game, fighting for a bid to the postseason. But for a select few, the end of the NBA season is a time for losing every game and fighting for the worst record.

However absurd this might sound, it is true. The worse you are, the better your chances are for a good draft pick. The Draft Lottery is set up so that the teams that do not make the playoffs are assigned chances of winning the draft picks based on their regular season record. The team with the worst record has a twenty five percent chance of getting the number one pick. This is way too high because teams will lose every game, in hopes of drafting a great college player such as Kansas State’s Michael Beasley.

The Seattle Sonics are a perfect example of this. Recently the Sonics decided to trade Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak for two washed up veterans and future draft picks. Both West and Szczerbiak went from being benchwarmers for the lowly Sonics, to starters for the playoff contending Cavaliers. How is this possible? Apparently the Sonics realized that they could not make the playoffs, and gave little playing time to the better players on the team, making losing much easier. This trade, along with P.J. Carlesimo’s terrible oaching ability, leaves the Sonics with the second worst record in the NBA. However, the Sonics owner Clay Bennett is looking to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City after the 09 – 10 season, when the Sonics’ lease on Key Arena expires. Right now in Seattle, winning is the most important thing that they could do. The fate of Seattle basketball rests on the shoulders of city officials, and a sixty loss team is not worth fighting for. If the Sonics were a playoff contender, then every game would be exciting, fans would be enthused and the people in power would feel compelled to keep the team in Seattle.

Although nobody will contest Dwyane Wade’s phantom knee injury that is keeping him out for the rest of the season, it is clear that the Miami Heat, who currently have the worst record in the NBA, are trying their best to keep themselves in the running for the first draft pick. Wade even admitted that he could play, but he thought it would be better to give himself “time to heal.” If you are able to play, then play. You are not getting paid millions of dollars to sit on the sidelines and cheer your teammates on. That is what cheerleaders are for.

Advocates of tanking say that they are simply building for the future. This is preposterous. Every game, players should go onto the court and do what they are getting paid millions to do; try their hardest to win basketball games. Coaches are not getting paid to play their second-string players in starting positions (*Cough– CarlesimoCough*). They are getting paid to win. Team owners, like Bennett or Micky Arison of the Heat, should stop worrying about how their team will look in the future, and should worry about how good they are now. It is embarrassing for a major city like Seattle or Miami to have pro-teams that are so terrible. It’s unfair to the fans and season ticket holders who pay thousands of dollars every year, and who give their undying support to the franchise to have to experience this aspect of the NBA, just for the slim hopes of future success. In the case of the Sonics, the future is now. These might be the last months that Seattle is home to an NBA team, and watching them give up 168 points in a game, and losing by 52 is the worst possible outcome for a franchise on the verge of leaving town.

Hopefully teams in the NBA can realize the setbacks caused by losing intentionally at the end of the season. A team losing on purpose is humiliating for everybody, and it compromises the integrity of professional basketball. The truth is these guys are getting paid to play a game for a living. Is it too much to ask that they give their best effort and play like the role models that they are supposed to be?