Fantanking - Sports Guy article

[Admin]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...070202_magazine

Quote:

---

Not even three years ago, back when Britney was still cute and people were excited about Zach Braff's movie career, two of my three favorite teams captured titles within a 14-week span. This was significant because, with a total of 92 MLB, NBA and NFL teams, I had about a 2.5 percent chance to root for two champs in the same year. (Note: I'm excluding the NHL because it held its All-Star Game on a Wednesday on a network called Versus. If we included hockey, we'd have to include Arena Football, MLS, National Lacrosse League, "Pros vs. Joes" and "Real World/Road Rules Challenge." Much easier this way.) The whole time, I was thinking, "Enjoy this. You never know when things might turn."

To nobody's surprise, things turned. The Patriots lost control of the AFC to the Steelers and Colts. And the Red Sox morphed into a mirror image of the Yankees, earning the perpetual revulsion of everyone outside the East Coast. At the rate we're going, I'm expecting someone to break the story that Sam Malone used steroids.

Greg Oden

AP Photo/Jay LaPrete

Can you imagine Greg Oden in green? Celtics fans are picturing it already.

Fortunately, I have two quests to keep me going:

1. Watching every televised game that features Greg Oden or Kevin Durant.

2. Rooting for the Boston Celtics to lose.

Coming from me, that last one sounds sacrilegious, right? The Celtics are, after all, the third of my favorites. But my basketball fan's life changed during a surreal 24 hours in December, when Paul Pierce hurt his foot one day after his team failed to trade for Allen Iverson, killing any chance at the playoffs and shifting the priorities of many Celtics diehards. We realized that if the team kept losing, it could win the lottery.

We have a term for a team that effectively gives up to increase its draft position -- "tanking" -- but nothing to describe when fans turn on their team for the same reason. Let me create one: "fantanking." Not only can you use it as a noun or as a verb, it sounds like a title of a Weezer CD.

Like every other rational Boston fan, I turned my fantanking switch on just as the Celtics were slipping Pierce's foot into a protective boot. Less rational fans can't stomach the thought of fantanking, even when it's with the most noble intentions, because it makes them feel like traitors. This is one of the age-old dilemmas in sports, right up there with when you should stop bringing a baseball glove to games, when (or if) you should sell your baseball cards and when you should stop wearing your team's jersey in public. And there's no definitive answer to any of them except one: If you're older than 18 and you still bring your glove to games, you're a loser. Hate to break it to you.

The fantanking debate caused a ruckus on my Celtics message board -- OK, maybe I shouldn't be calling anyone else a loser -- where one poster equated rooting against the Celtics to selling one's soul. Where does he get off? The Celtics long ago sold their collective soul by hiring Lucky the Leprechaun and bringing in the dance team that killed Red Auerbach. Other anti-fantankers argue that losing breeds losing, that a 20-win season could inadvertently contaminate our young roster. I don't buy this. Losing can't affect your body like radiation unless you're Ricky Davis. Some believe there's a karmic price for fantanking, as evidenced by Tony Allen's recent season-ending injury. I think this is complete crap. In 1997, San Antonio appreared to hold out a healthy David Robinson for the final few weeks and still landed Tim Duncan.

Here's the most reasonable antifantanking argument: You're hoping for a series of losses that eventually yields a prize, only the prize isn't a sure thing. The worst NBA team has a 25 percent chance to get the first pick (

unless it's Atlanta, which is banned from winning the lottery by a secret clause in the bargaining agreement

), and about a 50-50 chance for a top-two pick. It's the ultimate hit-or-miss, like gambling your way to a million-dollar nest egg in Vegas, then heading over to the roulette table and putting everything on black. Within 10 seconds, all that hard work can vanish into thin air and leave you muttering, "That's OK, that's OK, that's OK," like one of those shattered "Deal or No Deal" contestants.

Unquestionably, that's the worst-case scenario for the 2007 lottery. Those dastardly Ping-Pong balls could fail to cooperate, and we'd be stuck with Year 5 of Danny Ainge's rebuilding plan, which could easily last longer than the Iraqi occupation when everything is said and done.

Then I watch Durant flash an endless array of offensive moves, or Oden put up another double-double with one hand, and it's like monitoring two guaranteed Megabucks tickets. These guys are mortal locks to be franchise players, on the order of LeBron or Yao. We knew Oden would become the best college center since Patrick Ewing, but nobody was prepared for the 6'9" Durant, an unfathomable cross between T-Mac and Plastic Man who can score facing the basket and from 25 feet away. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm in love with him. Platonically, of course.

Either guy would save the Celtics. Barring injury, we'll someday remember the Oden-Durant draft the way we remember the LeBron-Melo-Wade and MJ-Hakeem drafts. You know, assuming they both come out. (Note: For my sanity and overall health, humor me and pretend these guys are definitely entering the 2007 draft. And let's never discuss this again. Thanks.)

If you think about it, fantanking isn't actually rooting against your team at all. Besides, this season's Celtics make it almost easy. The key to finishing with the worst record is to do it without disgracing the game in the process, and, fortunately, we have the best possible coach and team for that. Doc Rivers is an experienced veteran at keeping his guys playing hard even as he figures out ways to blow every close game. Meanwhile, we have a perversely young team -- more than half the roster is 25 or younger -- and a sidelined All-Star who hopefully is in no real rush to return. (If Pierce should decide to come back, I will kidnap him through April, even if the ensuing hullabaloo inspires someone to greenlight "Celtic Pride II.")

If there is any guilt, it's that I'm enjoying this whole thing a little too much. I spent a very pleasant recent night watching hoops, first rooting against the C's, who not only blew an 18-point lead to the Hawks but also lost Al Jefferson to a sprained ankle, and then for our chief lottery rivals, Memphis and Philly, who pulled off upsets in Utah and Cleveland. By the end of the night, the Celtics had leapfrogged the Sixers to move into a virtual tie for Ping-Pong pole position with the Grizzlies (which I know because I bookmarked the reverse standings on ESPN.com about four weeks ago). The only downer was that Jefferson's sprain turned out to be a mild one. We might need to start coating his sneakers with pig grease.

All in all, another satisfying night of fantanking for a Boston sports fan. When my wife asked me why I seemed so happy, it didn't feel even the slightest bit weird to say, "Because the Celtics lost again."

I'm getting good at this.

---

[HawksFan87]

We as fans have been saying that all along, now the writers are starting to notice it also....

[Guest Walter]

Quote:

---

We have a term for a team that effectively gives up to increase its draft position -- "tanking" -- but nothing to describe when fans turn on their team for the same reason. Let me create one: "fantanking."

---

Fantankerous of him!

Quote:

---

...Like every other

rational

Boston fan, I turned my fantanking switch on just as the Celtics were slipping Pierce's foot into a protective boot...

---

Rational fan? Is that an oxymoron? Seems so at Hawksquawk.

Quote:

---

...

Less rational

fans can't stomach the thought of fantanking, even when it's with the most noble intentions, because it makes them feel like traitors...

---

& I can't think of not tanking and being a traitor to the franchise or the next 10 year's Hawk's teams.

Quote:

---

Other anti-fantankers argue that losing breeds losing, that a 20-win season could inadvertently contaminate our young roster. I don't buy this. Losing can't affect your body like radiation unless you're Ricky Davis. Some believe there's a karmic price for fantanking, as evidenced by Tony Allen's recent season-ending injury. I think this is complete crap. In 1997, San Antonio appreared to hold out a healthy David Robinson for the final few weeks and still landed Tim Duncan.

---

True.

Quote:

---

Unquestionably, that's the worst-case scenario for the 2007 lottery. Those dastardly Ping-Pong balls could fail to cooperate, and we'd be stuck with Year 5 of Danny Ainge's rebuilding plan, which could easily last longer than the Iraqi occupation when everything is said and done.

---

And to think that Boston has ownership that can spend to improve this team. They actually HAVE other options through which to significantly improve their team. Imagine that. Choosing tanking when they actually have the choice not to!

Quote:

---

Then I watch Durant flash an endless array of offensive moves, or Oden put up another double-double with one hand, and it's like monitoring two guaranteed Megabucks tickets. These guys are mortal locks to be franchise players, on the order of LeBron or Yao. We knew Oden would become the best college center since Patrick Ewing, but nobody was prepared for the 6'9" Durant, an unfathomable cross between T-Mac and Plastic Man who can score facing the basket and from 25 feet away. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm in love with him. Platonically, of course.

---

Yep. These guys will instantly make whatever lousy team is lucky enough to draft them a playoff team and in 3 years a title contender.

[quoteIf you think about it, fantanking isn't actually rooting against your team at all. Besides, this season's Celtics make it almost easy. The key to finishing with the worst record is to do it without disgracing the game in the process, and, fortunately, we have the best possible coach and team for that.

---

[Guest Walter]

Quote:

---

We as fans have been saying that all along, now the writers are starting to notice it also....

---

Have fun with it fellas. Put aside your ego and think franchise. Yes it hurts a little now, but how good would it feel to have Oden ør Durant rather than 28 wins? If we do it right and win the coin flip, BK might not even be able to screw it up and Woody might even be able ot coach it to contention.

W

[Sothron]

Sports guy just owned in the face, if I may speak internet for a moment, all of the idiots on this board that think winning enough games to kill our chance at Oden is somehow good for the franchise.

[TheDude]

here's the big question that i have not heard sensibly answered.....

ok lets say you somehow sway the entire Atlanta Hawks fanbase to agree with you....then what?..

you gonna make the players not play hard? you gonna make the coaches not try to win?

let's say your only possible way of getting anything like that accomplished is by Bk somehow getting Woody to play the Solomon and Estebans more......fine, then lets say Woody does that (although his job becomes more in jeapordy than it even already is by doing such)..then what about the Josh Smiths and Josh Childresses on the team..the ones who give a [censored] and bust their ass to win a game..you think they're gonna be happy with reduced playing time as they watch the team go down in flames? you think they're gonna want to resign or keep that pro-Hawks drive when they think that management may be trying to tank? they're busting their butts to win games and get better each day. WE HAVE THE YOUNG TALENT TO BE EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL.

look, you protankers need to get over it...you keep looking at this golden egg in Oden and will do anything to get it..sure Oden may be the real deal and i'd love to have him on the team..but you are sacrificing a lot to get the CHANCE or POSSIBILITY of getting this golden egg..i will guarantee this: there will be a team that doesnt get Oden that will win the championship.. it's not our time to get the big guy..it wasnt our time to get Lebron, it wasnt our time to get Yao..we are not going to get Oden unless the 6,th, 7th or so seed wins the lottery by unlikely chance.

give up this stupid drawn-out argument because noone in the organization is going to do it and if you know it's not going to happen, then why not cheer on the team to WIN...

i was for tanking a year or so ago at one point (although i didnt [censored] we won games- i just quietly knew at that time it's all we had a chance for) because it was later in the season and we didnt have the young talent. we NEEDED the young talent..now we've got it...they need to get better and progress and it's happening.

am i the only one that sees how the team is constructed and the development it is showing?

[Guest Walter]

Quote:

---

here's the big question that i have not heard sensibly answered.....ok lets say you somehow sway the entire Atlanta Hawks fanbase to agree with you....then what?...you gonna make the players not play hard? you gonna make the coaches not try to win?

---

How hard is it to understand. Ownership, perhaps managment dictates what the hard working players have to work with. Ownership effectively ties one hand behind the team. Players do not tank. They don't HAVE TO change how hard they play. Woodson can't stop a trade of Lue or ZaZa from happening but if he refuses to reduce minutes here or increase them there, we simply fire him. It's not like Woodson shouldn't be fired regardless. Why do you care about Woodson in this anyhow?

Quote:

---

let's say your only possible way of getting anything like that accomplished is by Bk somehow getting Woody to play the Solomon and Estebans more......fine, then lets say Woody does that (although his job becomes more in jeapordy than it even already is by doing such)...

---

Again, why all the Woody concern? Do you care about Woody or the franchise? As I see it they are very much at odds in this instance.

Quote:

---

Then what about the Josh Smiths and Josh Childresses on the team...you think they're gonna want to resign or keep that pro-Hawks drive when they think that management may be trying to tank?

---

If we win a top 3 pick and/or somehow meet our team's needs in the offseason another way, yes. Otherwise, no, no matter what. Nobody "WANTS to resign" with a consistent 20 something win team. You think JJ wants to be here much less resign here if there isn't significant and I mean SIGNIFICANT improvement? He practically cries tears of Joy publically at the mention of Chris Paul. Those are not the actions of a man happy with his current team situation and believe me this year makes it much worse.

These players are smart. That means they understand that no matter how good the middle of the team MIGHT be, the team itself is currently BAD and AT BEST mediocre. They realize they have the worst ownership in professional sports. They know that cap space is fast diminishing, the pick is mortgaged. They get looks of pity from their NBA friends. They realize that they are in a horrible situation. They likely all don't WANT to be here. Does that mean they won't resign here regardless, nø. Josh Smith is an Atlantan. He'll likely stay. But others won't. Others, need to be able to look their NBA friends in the eye and see envy, not pity.

That's what Oden or Durant would provide. Instantly a buzz and a franchise player to go with it. Their NBA friends call them up and døn't rib them or awkwardly avoid the depressing subject of the Hawks franchise altogether. Suddenly, they're calling up their friends and saying "I've got a Norse god defending my basket, what do you have?" or "Durant put 37/23/3 steals/1 block on your old coach. What do you think he'll put on your new one, Jared?".

These players are smart. They'll also know we're tanking. I've discussed at length how ownership openly, forthrightly, honestly addresses this issue, particularly to the core players they value. How they accept all the responsibility for why the players they value do not have the help they need and deserve. I've discussed all of this and more. The reality is that should we win a top 3 pick, particularly a top 2 pick, nobody remembers the half-season sacrifice. They are getting phone calls from NBA friends congratulating them, individually psyched about their superstar teamate, instantly the sins of the past are forgiven and the days of famine forgotten in a land of plenty.

Quote:

---

WE HAVE THE YOUNG TALENT TO BE EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL.

---

I don't quite know how to respond to this level of ignørance.

Quote:

---

but you are sacrificing a lot to get the CHANCE or POSSIBILITY of getting this golden egg...

---

I don't think this is a win it all or win nothing scenario. I'm proposing trading ZaZa and/or Lue for picks. That's not a major sacrifice if on at all. If we don't win a top 3 pick we'll have the same limited team improvement opportunities we would otherwise have this offseason should we not have tanked. So we're not sacrificing anything there. No matter what, it still boils down to us building a team that can contend or else players won't WANT to resign with us.

Of course, we win the coin flip and we've won the lottery. In life I'd take this "chance" given the limited "sacrifice" and the huge reward available, and this is competitive sports where you aren't supposed to settle.

Quote:

---

i will guarantee this: there will be a team that doesnt get Oden that will win the championship...

---

Yes, Durant's team. Really, this is a very odd statement. You are conceeding a team with Oden will win NBA titles very often, just not all the time. If we all KNEW that Oden would win a mere single title shouldn't we all be fighting madly for the 25% chance to get Oden?!? I mean, the Hawks have been in existence how long without a title and you're argument is that with Oden we wouldn't win EVERY title? Good argument. I mean, for tanking that is. good argument for fantanking.

Quote:

---

it's not our time to get the big guy..it wasnt our time to get Lebron, it wasnt our time to get Yao..we are not going to get Oden unless the 6,th, 7th or so seed wins the lottery by unlikely chance.

---

Can you wake me up when you say it is our time to do whatever it is you think this team is destined for? I mean by your own argument we were necessarily "destined" to draft SW and sign Speedy. Great. With that kind of "destiny" we better hope to change it.

You make your luck. Don't be a fool and resign yourself to "If it were meant to be, if we were meant to tank, JJ would be in a camboot already" or "We won't win the lottery or a top 3 pick because we haven't won the lottery".

W

[Guest Walter]

Those would be individuals that think this team is going to contend as designed despite its ownership (unrealistic) and will never manage to keep it's top 3 pick despite the roughly 50/50 odds should we tank (pessimistic).

I'm between a "hopeful realist" (hopeful that we tank well and win the coin flip) & a realistic optimist (acknowledging the team can't contend as designed or improve significantly traditionally given ownership and at this point in rebuilding, but believing we can pull off the biggest franchise turn-around including the trade for 'Nique with just a little timely losing). Please, when pigeon-holing me, use my prefered, more accurate terminology.

W

[DJlaysitup]

OK

[TheDude]

i'm not looking out for Woody, but WOODY sure as hell is. you think he's going to jeapordize his own job?

right now the Spirit WANT to see the Hawks WIN. they have been preaching how they want to bring a winner to the city and that's the reason that people have been on their side as opposed to Belkin, where people say he won't spend money. you've got a member of that same Atlanta Spirit who actually gets on fans websites. you think a group that isnt in it to win it cares about going to a fan site?

i tell you, Atlanta keeps showing they arent on the way up and Stern won't be so inclined to back the Atlanta Spirit and the Spirit know that. and tanking doesnt look like "on the way up."

it essentially comes to this:

tanking doesnt help Woody keep his job(and again i'm not sure where you got that I was concerned about him, HE cares about him so that means he's not so inclined to encourage tanking)

tanking doesnt help the Spirit look good in the eyes of Stern or the fans (the people who will back them up for Stern's approval)due to again the team losing a crapload.

tanking doesnt help BK keep his job or at least get another job somewhere else

tanking doesnt help the Hawks organization give the current young guys faith or a committment to winning

and tanking won't happen. we're currently winning without a point guard or servicable center. how possibly, without traing away the young guys, is BK going to trade for something worse?

you talk about a 20 win team every season. if you cannot see the progress of this team, then that's the base of our disagreement.....apparently you see this team as peaking right now and this being it...as if whatever we end up this year will be what we do from now on with these players...i, however, do not feel that way....i am seeing that after all the injuries, that the players are playing with each other, Josh Smith is become a legitimate star in this league, Marvin becoming more consistent at scoring (our weakness early on) and Joe being Joe.

i'll put it like this: if we didnt get all those injuries this year this whole board would be lit up with people talking about us probably/possibly making the playoffs.

do we still need a center and point? yes..but we'd still make the playoffs next year, just with the players we have now (barring injury of course)

[Guest Walter]

Quote:

---

i'm not looking out for Woody, but WOODY sure as hell is. you think he's going to jeapordize his own job?

---

Not doing what your boss wants. Does that jeopardize one's job? Who cares if Woody "buys in" or not. We can tank with or without him.

Quote:

---

right now the Spirit WANT to see the Hawks WIN.

---

WIN what? 30 games. I would like to think ownership is sophisticated enough to realize this team can not contend, however, given Levenson's comments about how SW was a great pick I'm not sure this ownership is not only the worst in sports but the most ignorant (whatever amount of goodwill they may have). Clearly, if they believe drafting (another) glue guy (Roy is a glue guy AND 10 times more talented) at 5 no less and this one being a complete hack, if they think that was brilliant then this franchise is completely doomed under their leadership.

Quote:

---

Atlanta keeps showing they arent on the way up and Stern won't be so inclined to back the Atlanta Spirit and the Spirit know that. and tanking doesnt look like "on the way up.

---

I feel like I should ignore the part about Stern not saving us because of tanking, but I'll address it briefly. Should Stern ever intervene and his will in doing so be prejudgiced it would equally be prejudgiced in favor of a team who is consequential (one who just won - top 3 - the 2nd biggest lottery in the past 10-15 years. As long as we are inconsequential, Stern senses no urgency. He'll let it play out. If one of the league's new mega-stars is being squashed by the chaos, Stern definately has incentive to step in.

Regardless, I don't see Stern helping much less predjudicing his willingness to help.

Quote:

---

it essentially comes to this: tanking doesnt help Woody keep his job(and again i'm not sure where you got that I was concerned about him, HE cares about him so that means he's not so inclined to encourage tanking)

---

Uh, you are concerned because you keep repeating just how iimportant it would be for Woody to buy into what ownership wants. Let me repeat it for you one more time: It does not matter if Woody agrees or disagrees with tanking whether or not we tank! On one hand we trade whomever for whatever and he doesn't have a say in it and on the other if he doesn't agree to our decreased work-load for JJ and increased work-load for Batista and SJ (we've traded ZaZa perhaps so he has no choice here to some extent), WE FIRE HIM! WHY DO YOU CARE IF WE SHOULD FIRE WOODY(now rather than later)!?!

Quote:

---

tanking doesnt help the Spirit look good in the eyes of Stern or the fans (the people who will back them up for Stern's approval)due to again the team losing a crapload.

---

It's losing a crapload regardless. No doubt the fans won't remember the tank should we keep our pick. No doubt Stern senses no urgency to act on the franchise's behalf if it remains in consequential. Regardless, these arguments are just plain juvenile. If I'm trying to win a title I don't manage my business like a scared little chicken. Losers are those who fail to try nøt try and fail. If our aim isn't title contention and we're not willing to suffer all the rejection that might come with trying to build a contender, then we as a franchise are the biggest losers.

Quote:

---

tanking doesnt help BK keep his job or at least get another job somewhere else

---

Then save him the trouble and fire him. You even suggest he may get fired regardless. I believe he should. So what's the big deal trying to suggest that BK or Woody just won't do it. If they won't, good riddance!

Quote:

---

we're currently winning without a point guard or servicable center. how possibly, without traing away the young guys, is BK going to trade for something worse?

---

Like he did with the Al. Hmm. Maybe BK has been tanking (poorly) all along. You trade for an injured player (Kristic) after a team activates them (formality), you trade for a draft pick, or you trade an established player (Lue) for a prospect.

Quote:

---

if you cannot see the progress of this team, then that's the base of our disagreement.....apparently you see this team as peaking right now

---

Not peaking now, but peaking soon (as we will not resign all our prospects no matter what the course or ownership) and peaking well below contention.

W

[AHF]

Quote:

---

Sports guy just owned in the face, if I may speak internet for a moment, all of the idiots on this board that think winning enough games to kill our chance at Oden is somehow good for the franchise.

---

He will also flip-flop like crazy if the Celtics don't do well in the lottery. He will bring up how after the Duncan debacle he should have known this, etc.

I don't think fantanking is an illegitimate view - I just have read enough sportsguy stuff to know he will flip flop if the draft doesn't work out.

[AtLaS]

god does Vince make a big 3 every game or what