Tanking is often the ultimate show of competitiveness

Dallas Mavericks' Luka Doncic, left, Josh Green, center, and Kyrie Irving, right, base on the court during a timeout in the 2nd half of an NBA basketball game versus the Chicago Bulls, Friday, April 7, 2023, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez).
The group text was exploding on Dec. 27, 2020, and a few of the theories being posited were totally ludicrous.

There were actually Jets fans celebrating their team's success over the Cleveland Browns and neutral observers making the case that such excitement was warranted.

For those who do not have that date engraved in their brains, that was when the Jets found a way to beat a short-handed Browns team for their 2nd consecutive win. It's the triumph that pressed New York ahead of the Jaguars in the standings and essentially made sure the Jets would select No. 2 in the draft. That indicated Zach Wilson instead of Trevor Lawrence.

Naturally, the excellent Jets fans raged with the triumph. But some were commemorating. Ridiculous declarations like, "We do not get many chances to be happy, let us enjoy it," or even worse, "the group needs to discover a winning mindset" were uttered by those who mored than happy with the win.

2 years later, the Jets are thinking about mortgaging some of their future for Aaron Rodgers since the team is a quarterback away from being excellent. Is anyone still commemorating that silly win over the Browns?

Losing with a purpose.

Look, losing draws. It's typically far more destructive than any win can be satisfying.

And yet sometimes it's just the right thing to do. There's really a case to be made it's the supreme show of competitiveness to intentionally go through that kind of anguish to reach the group's objectives.

Yet tanking has actually ended up being such a hot-button issue, and maybe no case of it will be as controversial as what the Mavericks did Friday night.

Dallas had a choice to make: Try to win the final 2 games of the season and slip into the Western Conference play-in tournament or attempt to make certain they lost to the Bulls to give themselves a much better possibility at keeping their first-round pick.

They choose the latter. It was the ideal decision, and it's not particularly close. The Mavericks company realizes the roster wasn't going to do much in the postseason even if they did eke their method. That would likewise likely indicate falling out of the top 10 in the draft, which would instantly ship their choice to the Knicks.

Is the objective of a franchise to attempt to participate in the postseason or to attempt to complete for championships? If you state both, stop being ignorant.

The leagues recognize this, and they're mainly OK with it. The system is established to encourage it, a minimum of to some degree. What the leagues do not like, nevertheless, is when you publicly admit it.

That was the mistake of the Mavericks, who kept five crucial gamers out of the lineup in the hugely crucial game versus the Bulls and closed down star Luka Doncic early in the second quarter before allowing Chicago to rally for a success.

Just do not admit it.

Mission accomplished, other than for coach Jason Kidd confessing.

" We were fighting for our lives, and understanding this is a circumstance we're in, but the organization has made the decision to alter," he said throughout his pregame media schedule. "So, you understand, we have to go by that, which's something that occurs.".

Now the NBA has stated they are investigating the Mavs' motives and the circumstances surrounding the outcome. Save the time and effort. They lost on function, and they were ideal to do it.

Wish to remove tanking? Stop incentivizing it. In the meantime, groups that take part in the practice aren't in fact tanking, they're in fact being very competitive.

Let this likewise be a guide for the upcoming NFL season. The 2 most effective groups will be the Super Bowl champion and whichever group finishes with the worst record and ends up with the biggest prize in next year's draft.

Yes, it's time to Crash for Caleb Williams, the Southern California quarterback and presumptive very first pick in the 2024 draft.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.