1 month ago
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Monday night’s NBA Draft Lottery worked out for the Dallas Mavericks, leading some basketball fans to suggest the whole thing was rigged.
The lottery win definitely helps the Mavs, who, earlier this year, traded superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Davis as part of a three-team deal.
Some people considered the trade lopsided in favor of the Lakers, with the Sporting News giving it an “F” grade when it happened.
The Mavericks’ NBA lottery win on Monday will go a long way toward helping the team rebuild, but many people on social media thought the lottery was rigged in favor of Dallas on purpose.
Ratings were down, so the NBA gave Luka to the Lakers, and then gave the #1 pick in the NBA Draft to Dallas as compensation. Disgusting corruption.
And you can’t even argue it. The odds are too low of all of this lining up the way it has.
Completely rigged.
The Cavs won the lotto immediately after LeBron left.
The Pelicans won the lotto immediately after the CP3 trade.
The Pelicans won the lotto again immediately after the AD trade.
The Mavs win it immediately after the Luka trade.
You can’t convince me it’s not rigged.
Better not hear a soul ever tell me this league not rigged lol
Mavs had to sacrifice to get LAL a new star post-Bron and get rewarded with the #1 pick. pic.twitter.com/ZT7NnQqElN
Is the NBA Draft Lottery Rigged? Here's the data:
2008: Derrick Rose going to his home town Chicago when the Bulls had a 1.7% chance
2011: The Cavaliers getting the #1 pick after LeBron James left the summer prior
2012: The Pelicans getting the #1 pick after Chris Paul leaves… pic.twitter.com/Tq7kGgErMV
Dear NBA fans, this is a safe space.
Is the NBA Draft lottery rigged? Why or why not?
The Dallas Mavericks made the worst trade in NBA History sending Luka Doncic to the Lakers and then got rewarded with the #1 pick in the draft lottery to potentially draft Cooper Flagg. WHAT!?
Adam Silver after forcing Luka to the Lakers to fix rating problems and then making up for it by giving the Mavericks Cooper Flagg pic.twitter.com/Mn4c5LBo5F
— ᴅ ʀ ᴇ ᴡ (@FeelLikeDrew) May 12, 2025Adam Silver today:
100% Priortizes Ratings
Rigged for Mavs
Rigged for Spurs
100% Guaranteed Flagg for Luka
MIGHT AS WELL START WATCHING WWE 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/2nXUhe6GXH
Adam Silver made Nico Harrison trade Luka to LA to get the NBA ratings as they were tanking, and in exchange for that they rigged the lottery so Dallas gets Cooper Flagg
Nothing can convince me otherwise at this point pic.twitter.com/Aoc7Wy42UK
We all know the lottery is rigged but this is on a different level. Did the NBA promise them the 1st pick to get Luka to LA?? pic.twitter.com/Zmvh0N0vGH
— Bryson Wright (@BrysonWright3) May 12, 2025HuffPost reached out to the NBA for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Still, people intimately familiar with how the lottery works insist it was not rigged.
“I’m the only person who was in this room and the room 40 years ago. I was in charge of the NBA draft lottery 40 years ago when Patrick Ewing won. I’ve been doing conspiracy theory stories ever since. This is very surreal, personally.”
ESPN NBA writer Tim Bontemps also dismissed the rigging claims, saying that he sat and “watched the ping pong balls come out. There’s no rigging it.”
He added: “Rather than saying that, I do think a fair thing to wonder is if the new rules have helped, or if they’ve created more problems than they’ve solved. Today didn’t help that.”
Andy Larsen, who covers the NBA for the Salt Lake City Tribune, said he was onsite at the lottery and didn’t think there was any way to beat the system with so many eyewitnesses.
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“You’d have to fool both cameras and dozens of witnesses,” he said. “Those witnesses are incentivized to catch any shenanigans. By definition, at least 10 of the 14 team representatives are leaving the lottery upset.”
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