On ESPN's 'Get Up,' Mike Greenberg slammed tanking before suggesting that the NFL implements a draft lottery.
Screen grab: ‘Get Up’
Mike Greenberg isn’t typically known for his opinions.
But when the ESPN star is passionate about something, he makes sure to make it count.
Such was the case on Tuesday’s episode of Get Up, where Greenberg addressed the fallout to the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery. And while others bemoaned the Dallas Mavericks landing the No. 1 overall pick following a season in which they qualified for the Play-In Tournament, the former Mike & Mike co-host pointed to the Mavs’ lottery luck as proof that the sysem is working.
“When [NBA commissioner] Adam Silver changed around, tweaked a few things [with the lottery odds], he did it and he came on the show and talked about it because he recognizes, as should every sports fan, tanking is a scourge. Tanking is a disgrace. Tanking runs contrary to literally everything sports is designed to be,” Greenberg said. “Incentivizing losing is the worst mistake any sport can possibly make, any sports league can make, and as a result, I think it is great news.
“People saying, ‘oh, this isn’t working because the worst teams aren’t getting the pick.’ Shut up!” Greenberg continued. “That’s exactly the wrong way to look at it. Win games. Go out there and win games and see what happens and you know what should happen? The NFL should add this. Every sport should add this. The lottery is a brilliant idea and… I would absolutely be in favor of the NFL going to some sort of draft lottery, so you stop with the tanking, which is the worst thing in sports.”
As for the idea of a potential NFL Draft lottery, Mike Greenberg noted the number of fans at this year’s draft who already had their sights set on Texas quarterback Arch Manning for 2026. And much like those who have taken issue with the NBA’s lottery results, the 57-year-old also told those fans to “shut up” before expressing his belief that Peyton and Eli’s nephew won’t even declare for next year’s draft.
“You have no idea how good next year is going to be. Win games,” Greenberg said. “It should never benefit a team to lose any game that is being played at any point on the schedule in any sport.”
While Greenberg’s stance sounds good in theory, the reality is that leagues also have to balance fostering parity — or at least the illusion of parity — in order to keep the fanbases of losing teams invested. If the only goal was to disincentivize tanking, then the best teams would also get the best picks, a concept that would presumably prove disastrous for obvious reasons.
Ultimately, the implementation of a lottery does appear to be a happy medium, although even the adjusted odds haven’t stopped NBA teams from tanking. Especially in the analytics era, many organizations figure that if they aren’t capable of playing for a championship, they might as well play for a better draft pick, even with a system that can result in a team with a 1.8 percent chance of winning the lottery doing just that.