Help me explain to my 7 year old Kid why NBA rewards Losing with Draft Picks

[Pointgod]

He tells me this is against the value of rewarding good performance and punishing bad performance. I told him it for the parity of the league but he argued that there is no such thing as parity in the classroom. Those students that gets a E grade should not be receiving extra bonus merits just to pass the semester.

Explain to your son that it’s Socialism.

[omerome]

I high draft pick isn't as much of an reward as a championship

Sure it would. Just think if Detroit drafted Carmelo Anthony or Dwyane Wade instead of Darko. They would have added a guy who would have undoubtedly kept them in title contention for years to come.

[leolozon]

The school analogy is wrong. Even more considering that kids who have trouble in school DO have access to more ressources to be able to succeed. I'm a teacher. Which kids do you think I keep with me when I do recovery courses? I'm working at least 40 hours a week, when I'm paid for 32 and you can be sure that the students who have Ds get a bigger share of that extra time. Plus, two people take some of them out of class to get more help (special education + francization (I'm French Canadian)). They have access to more ressources, because when someone is down, you help him get up. It shouldn't be that complicated to teach that to your kid. It's actually better for society, because those D students have bigger odds to not get a job and/or raise D students because they can't help their kids.

And it's not even a good analogy, because the NBA is an entity and each team is part of it. The need to create competition and to keep every fan bases happy is important to generate as much profit as possible. Think of the NBA as a team and the teams as players within that team. If you want your team to get better, you don't replace the best player, you replace the worst player. That's essentially what sports are doing by sending good picks to the worst teams.

[Bad-Thoma]

He tells me this is against the value of rewarding good performance and punishing bad performance. I told him it for the parity of the league but he argued that there is no such thing as parity in the classroom. Those students that gets a E grade should not be receiving extra bonus merits just to pass the semester.

[GYK]

if a 7 year old said “against the value” I would never sleep in the same house.
All sports have a draft to help the less successful teams. It’s to balance the league. If anything praise the NBA for recognizing the inherent control and dominance a singular player can have and making their draft a lottery.

[sonic the laker]

Hm. So, your seven year old kid understood the definition, and use, of the word "parity". But, followed that by making a flawed analogous argument, attempting to compare school grading systems, to the NBA draft system. Interesting...

I'm going to go out on a limb, and guess that your kid is the one getting those "E" grades, aren't they? Should probably consider rewarding those low grades, with drafting to a better school.

[Heat3]

Its very simple. It is in the league’s interest that all teams be competitive and that there is an avenue for bad teams to improve. If only good teams are rewarded then those are the only teams that will be successful thus limiting the success of the league as a whole.

[snaquille oatmeal]

He tells me this is against the value of rewarding good performance and punishing bad performance. I told him it for the parity of the league but he argued that there is no such thing as parity in the classroom. Those students that gets a E grade should not be receiving extra bonus merits just to pass the semester.

The flaw in your son’s argument is that he thinks of the draft as extra credit when is more like assigning a tutor or spending extra time with failing students to help them get better.

The way he thinks it would be more like automatically adding to losing teams a +number of wins in the winning column of their record after the regular season is over.

Now give your son a juice box and telling to go to bed.

[The Hypnotoad]

I’m sure not all school systems are fortunate enough to do so, but I would compare it to a kid falling behind in class and bring OFFERED additional lessons to catch up. I say offered because a lot of kids (and by extension parents) don’t bother to take advantage of said help; which would be equivalent to these idiot teams trading their lottery picks in bad trades. You can lead a horse to water....

[TurinTurambar]

"Help me raise my totally real not made up child"

No.

[snaquille oatmeal]

"Help me raise my totally real not made up child"

No.

It takes a village my man...even when the child is the op

[LordCovington33]

I doubt your 7-yr-old said there is no parity in the classroom.

[kobe_vs_jordan]

I high draft pick isn't as much of an reward as a championship

Sure it would. Just think if Detroit drafted Carmelo Anthony or Dwyane Wade instead of Darko. They would have added a guy who would have undoubtedly kept them in title contention for years to come.

All time great draft classes don't come around every year. His son 7, don't know anything about Detroit drafting Darko.

[coldfish]

It would be interesting if there was simply a hard cap. No draft or max salary or anything. The teams that spent their money the best would win. If someone spent $40m per year on Cade and he ends up being mediocre, they would be screwed. If they spent 80% of the cap on Lebron . . . could he still win?

You would get your parity, it would just be comical watching some owners flip out over their bad contracts.

[TheHartBreakKid]

Well, I'm going to approach this thread based on the actual premise and take it literally about explaining the lottery to a 7 year old:

But how do you explain the concept of parity to a 7 year old? You can't expect them to understand the concept of parity, let alone fully grasp the differences between a business and a classroom. Even if it's a brilliant 7 year old, that's still a highly unlikely concept for them to learn.

So the best you could do is make them understand things in their language:

- Draft picks aren't rewards. Draft picks are extra assistance/help to the franchises which are struggling. You know how [insert teacher name] gives more attention to the students who are getting Ds, and spends one on time with them, or they have to go to tutoring? That's what draft picks are. I know they seem like rewards, but you would actually prefer to be in the playoffs (get A's and B's) rather than get draft picks.

Of course this is a full on half ass response, and completely minimizes that the C students in the NBA have every incentive to drop down to D and F students and that draft picks are far closer to rewards in comparison to tutroring/teacher giving extra attentions etc. But that's a result of all the things the 7 year old can't reasonably understand (parity, business model, NBA structure etc etc)

[bisme37]

[JonFromVA]

He tells me this is against the value of rewarding good performance and punishing bad performance. I told him it for the parity of the league but he argued that there is no such thing as parity in the classroom. Those students that gets a E grade should not be receiving extra bonus merits just to pass the semester.

Does your kid by any chance attend the Darwin school?

The NBA is not some form of pure competition, it's a business that would prefer that all 30 teams are sustainable and profitable if not successful.

[Raps in 4]

A draft is needed to ensure competitive balance.

By not awarding draft picks to losing teams, you create a vicious cycle where they remain bad indefinitely, and the rich just get richer.

To see what happens in sports without a draft, look no further than European soccer where the same top teams have been in that position for decades, with no one else having a chance to compete.

[dhsilv2]

He tells me this is against the value of rewarding good performance and punishing bad performance. I told him it for the parity of the league but he argued that there is no such thing as parity in the classroom. Those students that gets a E grade should not be receiving extra bonus merits just to pass the semester.

Explain to your son that it’s Socialism.

That would be a really awful description. This is like if a company had 30 products and each product had a product manager. You don't send your best managers to run the best selling products always. Sometimes you send your best up and coming talent to the under preforming products to hopefully turn them around. Why? Because it's a way to add the most value to the overall company. That's capitalism, not socialism.

[meekrab]

The NBA does this for the same reason the Harlem Globetrotters have to play in a new city every night.