Tanking, or the act of deliberately losing games in order to increase the chances of getting a higher pick in the draft, is generally condemned in the NBA. However, one former NBA general manager admitted trying to tank in one of his last seasons in the league although he was unsuccessful in his attempt.
Bryan Colangelo, who served as Toronto Raptors GM from 2006 to 2013, was candid about how he tried to tank the 2011-12 season, according to a report by Yahoo! Sports. His admission was made during the Basketball Analytics panel at the 2014 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
Yahoo! Sports quoted Colangelo as saying: "Admittedly, I tried to tank a couple of years ago. I didn't come out and say, 'Coach, you have to lose games.' I never said that. I wanted to establish a winning tradition and a culture and all of that, but I wanted him to do it in the framework of playing and developing the young players. With that comes losing. There's just no way to avoid that."
The former Raptors GM was referring to the lockout-shortened season wherein the Raptors was coached by Dwane Casey. However, the Raptors did not exactly follow his wishes as the team remained competitive, prompting Colangelo to joke that: "he did too good of a job in motivating his players." The Raptors eventually finished with a 23-43 record.
Eventually, the Raptors earned the eight pick in the first round where they tabbed swingman Terrence Ross in the 2012 NBA Draft. Ross has been one of the revelations for the Raptors this season, even scoring a career-high 51 points.
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