It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.  That’s an adage as old as sports.  But what if you played the game to lose?  Sound crazy? Unfortunately, in the world of professional sports of all places, that’s become more the norm than the exception.  Tank Mode.  The technical definition is–“a team that loses on purpose after determining they have nothing to play for in the current season, in order to help their chances of drafting the next savior of the franchise”.  There are a couple of problems associated with that way of thinking.  The first is that for every Lebron James, there is Andrea Bargnani, Kwame Brown, Greg Oden, or Anthony Bennett.  Who you say?  Exactly.  And those were all #1 picks!  The list of failed draft choices grows with each spot down the draft board.  The NBA, for its part, has attempted to mute “tanking” games by instituting the ping pong ball lottery.  Based on how you finish, you have a higher percentage chance of obtaining the #1 pick, but certainly no guarantee.  In fact, this year was the first time in a while that the team with the worst record actually won the #1 pick.  But this system hasn’t really been the deterrent that the league perhaps thought it would be.  Teams played the percentages.