March 16 ------ OVER the last few days since we came out with the story about the projections on the next PBA No. 1 pick, our comments sections have been filled with talk about a possible return of the rookie draft lottery.
Some are against it; most of the comments are all for it. For those unfamiliar, a draft lottery determines the order in which teams exercise the top picks in a rookie draft. The NBA lottery, in place since 1985, involves teams which failed to reach the playoffs, with the worst team of the season having the biggest odds of landing the No. 1 pick.
In the PBA, the draft lottery involved the teams with the two worst records of the previous season - with the last-placed team based on cumulative win-loss records having two balls in the box - or a 63 percent chance of being picked - against the team with the second-best record. That practice was stopped after the controversial PBA draft lottery of 2014, in which then commissioner Chito Salud faced accusations of rigging the draft in favor of GlobalPort - an event that came to be known as the 'salamangkero' controversy. That No. 1 pick turned out to be Stanley Pringle.
After that incident, the PBA board scrapped the draft lottery altogether and went back to the natural order of drafting, in which the team with the worst record automatically gets first crack at the rookie pool. The new draft process took effect the year after the league welcomed two expansion franchises in Blackwater and Kia [now Terrafirma]. Coincidentally but not surprisingly, every single No. 1 pick since went to either of the two minnows.
That may finally change this season, with Converge - the company that bought the Alaska franchise lock, stock and barrel - now in position to get the No. 1 draft pick after losing all its 15 games of the season so far. However, the surprising turn of events has also sparked suspicion of tanking, especially with Converge's link to Pampanga Governor Delta Pineda and the team's well-known desire to draft the Giant Lanterns' Justine Baltazar. With the accusations came suggestions of bringing back the draft lottery, so teams will never be assured of the No. 1 even if they lose all their games in one season, in the process watering down the incentives for 'tanking.'
PBA commissioner Willie Marcial himself ruled out the possibility of reinstating the draft lottery for this season's draft, saying all changes to the draft process need to be made and approved by the board before the season. "Hindi na pwedeng baguhin [ang draft procedure], at least for this season," Marcial tells SPIN.ph. "Kailangan munang dumaan sa board 'yan, at kailangan ma-approve ng board ang anumang changes prior to the season."
But that's not to say that the board totally isn't for the reinstatement of the draft lottery. Marcial revealed a couple of years back, there were members of the league's policy-making body who raised the issue for discussion. It was never discussed, Marcial. But even if it was, the reinstatement of the draft lottery, as in most rule changes in the league, will need a two-thirds vote from the board to happen.
Will it happen in the future? We sure hope so.
Source: spin.ph
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