NBA’s looming lottery changes will likely have incidental repercussions

The NBA’s fight against tanking has been going on for decades, long before the first lottery that delivered Patrick Ewing to New York.

Different leadership has tried different tactics. From the lottery to the ping-pong balls, trying to fend off tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists. They’ve weighted the odds and flattened the odds.

They’ve fined infractions and now threatened more rules changes.

“We are going to fix it,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver vowed recently. “Full stop.”