Basketball Hall of Famer and ESPN NBA analyst Charles Barkley has a plan to stop NBA teams from tanking to get more ping pong balls in the draft lottery and it starts with their ticket prices.
Appearing on ESPN’s “NBA Tipoff” on Friday, Barkley laid out his three-point proposal to make teams more competitive late in the season and stop them from tanking.
“I don’t think any NBA team should be able to raise their ticket prices if they’re below .500,” Barkley said. “I’ve always said that you cannot raise your ticket prices if your team is below .500. I think they should make that a rule in every sport, to be honest with you. … You can’t raise your ticket prices because then you get your cake and eat it too. Which, you know, I’m all for cake.”
Barkley also suggested that each team would receive only one ping-pong ball in the lottery if it does not make the playoffs, a departure from the current system, which awards the most ping-pong balls to the team with the worst record and gradually decreases the number of balls based on win totals. Barkley’s final proposal addresses what teams can do with their draft picks.
“If you trade a pick, it’s gone because now teams can manipulate, well, if it falls in the top three or four, or top seven protected,” Barkley said. “No, everybody gets one ping-pong ball who is in the lottery.”
ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania reported that the league sent a memo Thursday detailing ideas it is discussing to prevent tanking. Some of the ideas included protecting the top four of 14 selections, freezing the lottery odds after the trade deadline and barring teams that made the conference finals the previous year from receiving a top-four selection.