NBA Shockingly Votes Against Anti-Tanking Measures

Today's vote on a proposal to re-weight the NBA draft lottery to discourage tanking was expected to pass with near-universal support. Instead, it fell hard, receiving only 17 of the 23 necessary votes for adoption. The 76ers' Tankapalooza is back on!

The proposal would have drastically reduced the odds of the team with the worst record receiving the first draft pick. Under the old system, the worst team had a 25 percent chance of getting the No. 1, followed by significant drop-offs. Under the proposed new system, the four worst teams would have had identical 12 percent chances, with the odds gradually falling off after that.

The Sixers were, naturally, against the change, having decided to intentionally put out terrible teams for a few years to re-stock in the draft. As of yesterday, they were reportedly joined only by the Thunder in opposing the proposal.

Yesterday, Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski wrote about the dynamic in play here: small-market teams concerned that they were losing one of their only tools to level the competitive playing field with the big-money clubs. And sure enough, the list of teams that voted against the proposal mostly aligns with the NBA's smaller markets.

Since a majority of teams support reform—and many of those who voted "no" reportedly did so out of a desire to do their homework rather than any ideological opposition—expect this to be taken up again very soon. But in the meantime: Look upon the Sixers, and despair.