Clippers Won Too Many
Everybody's favorite sports franchise did a masterful job losing this season, particularly down the home stretch.
The organization didn't quite lose enough, though, to catch the Philadelphia 76ers and the Detroit Basketball Pistons and conclude the 2009-2010 campaign as the NBA's sixth-worst team.
Finishing in that spot would have given Donald Sterling et. al. a 6.3% chance of winning the league's lottery and receiving the first pick in June's draft.
That would mean adding heralded guard John Wall to the club. Barring injury or other catastrophe. (Never happens.)
Instead, by finishing as the eighth-worst team, the Clippers have only a 2.8% chance to secure that coveted #1 selection.
These percentages come via ESPN.com. The site operates a 2010 NBA Lottery Mock Draft game. TTLA faithfully pressed the "play lottery" button six times and in each instance the fates left the Clips the #8 pick, and each time, the projected selected player was Kansas University Jayhawk center, Cole Aldrich.
Since the club already has DeAndre Jordan and NBA All-Star and German Olympian Chris Kaman under contract for next season, clearly the machine is on to something.
- Unrelated:
- ProEthics, LTD on the ethics of tanking.
- "Cheaters Never Prosper -- Except in Sports," from the Josephson Institute's Center for Sports Ethics.
And, from the TTLA archives: Basketball's Think Tanks.
Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post, of Clippers halftime entertainment, was taken by Flickr user donielle. It was used under Creative Commons license.