Illitch didn't want to suck, especially with a new arena coming but the truth is the days of the Wings finding steals in the draft ended when big guys could skate as fast as any tiny Red Wing. Chicago's best 2 players came from sucking and drafting. Same with the Penguins and maybe even back to back years.

The draft is one of the bigger lies that owners of sports teams have sold to us that they do "for the sake of the game or competition or some lofty sports goal thing." Only it's not for that at all. We laugh at the owners trying to protect the selves from themselves. We talk about parity and all that. But they are all private businesses that share the revenue. They can't let one team run by some idiot cut into their shares of the overall profits.

The second myth I love, one that I bought into for years, is that players need to actually hate other players to really want to give everything to win it all. It's such hypocrisy and bullshit. Remember 2005 when they couldn't shut up about Pop and LB being buds. Or when Magic and Isiah kissed and body checked each other in the same game. Another con job.