Sixers & Bucks: "Mission Accomplished"

May 20th cannot come fast enough. Well I guess it can for Andrew Wiggins, or whoever will be picked by the seller-dwellers of professional basketball. A phrase to describe the 2013-14 76ers & Milwaukee Bucks could be: "mission accomplished." It is no secret the objective of the season for both franchises was to lose as many games as possible to get the best chance at the first pick in the draft, or at least a top pick to give the team a major chance to become great.

But does it really matter?

The Bucks (somehow) finished with the worst record in the NBA. I say somehow because of how horribly the Sixers threw the season away at the trade deadline and employed a bunch of d-leaguers. As the worst team in the NBA, they have a 25% chance of getting the first pick, highest among all 14 lottery teams. Any 3rd grader realizes that is still a 75% chance of not getting it. Not only is there a better chance of them not getting it, but of all the possible picks they could have, which is 1-4, probability is in favor of them getting the 4th pick at a 35.7%.

And the Sixers? They also have a better chance at 4th at 31.9%. They even have a better chance at 1 than they do 2, by .1%.

How about that 4th to last team, the Utah Jazz? The Sixers and Bucks take up well over half the percentage of the 4th pick so they must have the rest, right? Utah ends up with a 9.9% chance at no. 4.

Here is the rest of this corrupt system:

This draft is a endless pool of talent. You won't see tanking like this for a long time, believe me. But it is still a disgrace to the NBA that you do not see in any other sport, with exception to the Houston Astros, who have been tanking for years.

So do you get rid of the lottery so the worst team actually gets what they deserve? I think you would see teams just stand around and blatantly lose the game on purpose. That would only make it worse.

Do you change the draft to a wheel system where teams get a top 5 pick every 6 years and the number 1 pick every 30? This could never work because the top team should have absolutely no chance to get the first pick, and I doubt the NBA will have 30 even teams for 30 years. This process would need an unfair makeover somewhere down the road.

Teams tank because they know there is no way they can keep up with the elites during an 82-game season. But how about a 50-game season? Give the bad teams more motivation to work toward championship potential in one season. The NFL, MLB, and NHL all have teams that come out of nowhere and compete. The NBA does not have that because when it comes down to it, teams realize it is better to suck and then develop future stars. You don't need an 82-game season to prove the Heat and Pacers are 10 games better than everyone else in the East.

But before you do that, make the first round or maybe even first two rounds of the Playoffs a best of 5 game series. Give the lower seeds a better chance. March Madness gets attention through the upsets. The NBA could too.

I am not naive. I know this will never happen. All this would do is reduce the amount of money being brought in through ticket sales, something the NBA does not want to risk. But the NFL is the most prosperous league through sponsors, and their teams play 16 games a year. Making each game more meaningful could be the key.

Week of Streaks

Two people who never really have the national attention certainly got it for their new records. One that should get more attention than it is receiving, and one that may sum up the Phillies season.

Phils outfielder Ben Revere set a Major League record for most consecutive ABs to start a career without a home run. According to Sports Illustrated, he is now chasing these records:

1,559 – most career PA without a home run since integration, including pitchers (Don Sutton, 1966-1988, not counting 24 homerless PA in the postseason)

1,887 – most PA to start a career without a home run since integration (Greg Gross, 1973-1977)

2,073 – most career PA without a home run in the modern era (Tom Oliver, 1930-1933)

2,592 - most PA to start a career without a home run, all-time (Emil Verban, 1944-1950, not counting 19 homerless PA in the 1944 World Series)

2,593 – most career PA without a home run, all-time (Dave Eggler, 1871-1885)

3,605 – longest homerless streak, all-time (Tommy Thevenow, 1926-1938)*

The other streak, broken last night was NBA referee Dick Bavetta appeared for his 2,633rd consecutive assignment, dating back to 1975 when his refereeing career began. This number surpassed Cal Ripken Jr.'s "Ironman" streak of consecutive games played for the Orioles.

Dick, I hope you enjoy your praise today. You deserve it. I leave you with the greatest wizard of all time, congratulating you.

Why The Olympics are Good for the NHL

At 10:00 AM, I turned on SportsCenter. Yesterday was an exceptionally dramatic day in the sports world, consisting of the face of baseball announcing he will call it quits this season, the Richie Incognito/Jonathan Martin fiasco publicly reaching a new low, a wild buzzer beater in Pittsburgh, and of course ESPN's bread and butter LeBron James hitting a game winning 3-pointer in the late hours of the evening.

All these booming stories and the headline of the morning is...HOCKEY?!?!?!

I must be dreaming. Today's episode began with coverage of Team USA's 7-1 rout of the Slovaks in the opening game for both teams. ESPN will go full shows without even mentioning the sport during the NHL Regular Season. They give Barry Melrose (their only TV hockey analyst) anywhere from 2-3 segments a week to review a couple games and what's going on in the hockey world. Nowhere near the time they spend talking about other major professional and college sports.

The National Hockey League does not receive the nation-wide following other sports get and only becomes the top story on SportsCenter during the playoffs and the Stanley Cup Final. Champions in other major leagues are dedicated most, if not all of the showtime, while last year the Blackhawks got about five minutes. And it only gets a few minutes to be covered because it competes with the attention the NBA Playoffs are getting, and to ESPN that is no contest.

Thank God the NHL doesn't run the Olympics. They are the only way the sport of hockey can attract attention to itself. People love it, get excited, and the sport becomes more popular. The Super Bowl, World Cup, and Olympics are in a class by themselves. That is inarguable.

I am not naive. I know the NHL, in areas in the South is not even considered a major sport. But the NHL is to the South as NASCAR is to the North, and plenty of national attention is given to auto racing.

We all know why the NHL is singled out. ESPN promotes the events it covers more than others simply because they are a business and want to make money. The more people that watch their broadcasts, the more valuable their network is. The statement that defends this argument the most is the fact that Women's College Basketball is a more important story than the hotter than hot battles for playoff spots in the NHL. With all due respect to the great female athletes of the NCAA, you cannot seriously tell me they produce a more popular game than men's professional hockey. Gary Bettman and the NHL thought it would be better to not to stick with ESPN and their overwhelming control of the sports world. And since then began an outcast of not the sport of hockey, but the just NHL.

The Harris Poll recently released a study showing football and baseball with the majority popularity, 60 percent of fans saying one of them (NFL, NCAA football, and MLB) being their favorite sport. Auto Racing, the NBA, NHL, and College Basketball all being within four percent of each other, another argument to ask why the NHL is treated differently.

Something that will be very interesting to see is how ESPN will treat NASCAR when it no longer covers it and will hand over its broadcasts to NBC Sports.

A perfect scenario would be Team USA bringing home the gold and giving the most possible attention to a sport that could use it. We can only hope. The dream continues Saturday 7:30AM EST against the Russians.