Freddie deBoer • 4084 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
- Intentionally losing games and resting healthy stars for strategic reasons destroys fan trust and makes the product less enjoyable.
- Having good players who make a team competitive is better for fans than deliberately staying bad to chase draft picks, even if those players can’t single-handedly win a title.
- The league’s incentives are broken, so practical fixes (shorter season, removing protected picks, rethinking the draft) and a cultural shift away from ‘championship-or-nothing’ thinking are needed to restore competitive integrity.