Jay Williams said Thursday morning that he expects the first 13 picks of the 2026 NBA Draft to be freshmen from the college ranks. That nearly the entire draft lottery might be comprised of diaper dandies, Williams said, is a pretty good indicator of why so many NBA teams are currently (and allegedly) tanking the back half of their seasons.
Tanking is not a new phenomenon in the NBA, but it does seem to be more fervent this season. With the NBA All-Star break approaching and teams concocting new excuses to sit players, fans and media personalities alike have taken aim at the league for devaluing the regular season.
Williams went so far as to say that college basketball, as a product, has surpassed the NBA.
“Not saying the talent, but the college basketball product is better than the NBA product right now,” the former Duke star said Thursday morning on ESPN’s Get Up. “Each night in college basketball, you’re having top-15 matchups, and the best players are actually playing in the games and actually competing each and every night.”
Virginia Tech upset a top-20 Clemson team on Wednesday night. Purdue and Nebraska went to overtime in a battle of top-13 teams on Tuesday. Kansas handed Arizona its first loss of the season in a top-10 heavyweight fight on Monday. And North Carolina stunned Duke in an instant classic last Saturday.
That being said, the NBA is still delivering smashing ratings.
The first 2 months of the season, though chunked out more than ever thanks to a sprawling new media deal, experienced an 89% increase year-over-year in viewership, according to the league. The first 2 months of the season saw its best viewership numbers in 15 years, and the NBA’s Christmas Day package fetched more than 47 million viewers throughout the day, also its best number in 15 years.
Of course, most teams in the league were still trying then. The league’s February and March numbers might look completely different.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
