PROPOSED changes to the NBA’s draft lottery format designed to distribute the odds more evenly among the non-playoff teams failed to pass at the league’s board of governors meeting Wednesday, Commissioner Adam Silver said.

    Silver said the final vote was 17-13 in favor of the reform but that fell short of the required 23 votes — three-quarters of the league’s teams — needed to change the lottery.

    The reform plan was to discourage the idea of losing on purpose, known as “tanking,” to increase a team’s odds in the lottery. Silver said the league has to “find the right balance” in creating incentives for teams to win and allowing what is appropriate re-building through the draft.

    The reforms would have given the league’s four worst teams identical odds (around 11 percent) of winning the No. 1 draft pick, with the fifth team having about a 10 percent chance and the rest of the teams declining odds.(SD-Agencies)