Tanking seems to be on everyone’s mind in the NBA these days. Like many sports problems, “tanking” is not singular but an amorphous cluster of problems all housed under one term. The term isn’t hard to define–it’s when a team has a strategic incentive to lose–but it lacks a precise scope. That makes it hard to settle on what exactly is included when different people use the term. Tanking involves teams actively competing to lose games, usually to better their draft position. So sure, we include The Process in Philadelphia. But do we also include Donald Sterling’s original version?
Solving the NBA’s Tanking Problem
