Built to Lose cover art

Built to Lose

How the NBA's Tanking Era Changed the League Forever

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Built to Lose

By: Jake Fischer
Narrated by: Kyle Tait
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About this listen

A singular, transcendent talent can change the fortunes of a basketball franchise faster than in any other sport. For NBA teams, three avenues exist for acquiring those pivotal superstars: signing players in free agency, adding them via trade, or hand-selecting them through the draft. One only has to look toward the outright fanfare surrounding recent top pick Zion Williamson to recognize that it's the pursuit of the latter which has defined and forever altered the NBA in its current era.

It's a story that weaves its way behind closed doors to reveal intricate machinations normally hidden from public view. Backed by extensive reporting and hundreds of interviews with top players, coaches, and executives, Jake Fischer chronicles secret pre-draft workouts, feuding between player agents and executives, surprising trade negotiations, interpersonal conflict within rosters, organizational power struggles, and the missteps behind infamous public relations fiascos, making for a fascinating and unmissable insider's look at the NBA.

©2021 Jake Fischer (P)2021 Tantor Basketball Sports
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Fischer knows his stuff. He has interviewed loads of people part or close to the tanking era in the NBA. Definitely an interesting listen, but the choice to include more teams than just the Sixers makes it feel somewhat unfocused. As a Kings fan myself, I do enjoy the PDA, Karl and Cousins tidbits, but I feel like it hurts the overall structure. Therefore, I'm leaning towards 3.5 stars for the story, which unfortunately isn't an option. Ended up giving it four because of Fischer's meticulous research. Narration was pretty good as well.

Interesting and well-researched, but lacks focus

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