The OFFICIAL "Was the 2025 NBA draft rigged?"

[sp6r=underrated]

The likely final 4 as of today is Indiana, Minnesota, OKC and Boston. That's a terrible final 4 for ratings with only 1 club having a big fanbase.

If the NBA fixes things, why is it allowing this outcome?

The NBA can influence games through its ref selection, but they can't outright rig games. If one team is making its shots and the other team isn't, there isn't much that a ref crew can do.

Why did the NBA allow OKC/IND/MIN to accumulate so much talent?

If you're right that the NBA manpiulates draft lotteries and assigns refs to games to manipulate games, wouldn't they ensure small market teams like OKC/IND/MIN can't outpace popular teams

[PushDaRock]

Dallas getting the #1 pick in both the NBA and WNBA draft in the same year is one of the greatest coincidences of all time

[maxpower8888]

"If the NBA is rigged, why didn't they rig playoff series x so team y would win?"

Just because not everything is rigged, doesn't mean nothing is.

[SOUL]

This take is not rational imo. If you're convinced that the league rigged one draft, you cannot be equally convinced that they didn't rig another. Either they're oppen to rigging or they're not. The NBA has access to very smart people who can figure out how to accomplish a given task.

As for the point others have made that the NBA had no idea that the Mavs would miss the playoffs - I think that's fair. But the point that's being missed here is that Silver didn't have to promise them Flagg- he just had to promise them a favour for a favour. And the opportunity to repay the favour presented itself quickly.

Sure it's rational. I can think the NBA has bad apples (Donaghy, Jontay Porter) without thinking every other player or ref is rigging the league, just like the NBA can have a way different way of drawing the lottery where it's super easy to bend the corner and rig it versus a whole setup with ping pong balls, E&Y, and team representatives being present to make sure there isn't any trickery. Not saying I 100% believed it was rigged, but if there was one to give credence to, it's that one.

The burden isn't upon me to prove a conspiracy theory isn't happening lol. The fact that people think Silver forced the Doncic trade to happen to benefit the Lakers (but not get them past the first round), lose Kyrie and AD to injuries, lose in the play-ins after winning the first game, then work some machinations that can pull out the exact lottery balls needed to make the Mavs win and/or get every other NBA team to agree to help Nico Harrison save face all to make the Mavericks good.. I mean.. lol

[Kurtz]

This is sadly the world now. Things don't go people's way and everything is a conspiracy theory/rigged instead of realizing how lottery systems work in general.

I think the Ewing draft was rigged for sure because of how they did it, but now they have representatives behind the stage when the balls are being drawn, meaning every team in the league would have to be "IN" on a specific team winning a generational talent. Yeah, not happening.

Just massive amounts of stupidity in the world right now but I'll chalk most of it up to emotions and anger lol.

This take is not rational imo. If you're convinced that the league rigged one draft, you cannot be equally convinced that they didn't rig another. Either they're oppen to rigging or they're not. The NBA has access to very smart people who can figure out how to accomplish a given task.

As for the point others have made that the NBA had no idea that the Mavs would miss the playoffs - I think that's fair. But the point that's being missed here is that Silver didn't have to promise them Flagg- he just had to promise them a favour for a favour. And the opportunity to repay the favour presented itself quickly.

Dumb Questions: How did Dallas know Silver would honor his promise?

If you're right Silver is an extremely dishonest person who is managing a manipulated draft lottery designed to mislead the public. Given that, why would Dallas trust him to come through?

SIlver doesn't work for the public - he works for the owners. If he starts breaking his promises to the owners, he gets replaced very quickly.

[Kurtz]

The likely final 4 as of today is Indiana, Minnesota, OKC and Boston. That's a terrible final 4 for ratings with only 1 club having a big fanbase.

If the NBA fixes things, why is it allowing this outcome?

The NBA can influence games through its ref selection, but they can't outright rig games. If one team is making its shots and the other team isn't, there isn't much that a ref crew can do.

Why did the NBA allow OKC/IND/MIN to accumulate so much talent?

If you're right that the NBA manpiulates draft lotteries and assigns refs to games to manipulate games, wouldn't they ensure small market teams like OKC/IND/MIN can't outpace popular teams

They can't rig every single aspect of the league - there are levers they can pull, and they need to be judicious with when they pull them. They can't just order all the small markets to draft and trade poorly.

[sp6r=underrated]

This take is not rational imo. If you're convinced that the league rigged one draft, you cannot be equally convinced that they didn't rig another. Either they're oppen to rigging or they're not. The NBA has access to very smart people who can figure out how to accomplish a given task.

As for the point others have made that the NBA had no idea that the Mavs would miss the playoffs - I think that's fair. But the point that's being missed here is that Silver didn't have to promise them Flagg- he just had to promise them a favour for a favour. And the opportunity to repay the favour presented itself quickly.

Dumb Questions: How did Dallas know Silver would honor his promise?

If you're right Silver is an extremely dishonest person who is managing a manipulated draft lottery designed to mislead the public. Given that, why would Dallas trust him to come through?

SIlver doesn't work for the public - he works for the owners. If he starts breaking his promises to the owners, he gets replaced very quickly.

If the owners are involved, what did Utah get for agreeing to keep quiet. Utah has been blatantly tanking to get Flagg. You're alleging that Silver **** em over.

Why would they agree to this?

[BarneyGumble]

Wow. The Democrats must run the NBA lottery.

[Raps in 4]

Dumb Questions: How did Dallas know Silver would honor his promise?

If you're right Silver is an extremely dishonest person who is managing a manipulated draft lottery designed to mislead the public. Given that, why would Dallas trust him to come through?

SIlver doesn't work for the public - he works for the owners. If he starts breaking his promises to the owners, he gets replaced very quickly.

If the owners are involved, what did Utah get for agreeing to keep quiet. Utah has been blatantly tanking to get Flagg. You're alleging that Silver **** em over.

Why would they agree to this?

NBA viewership increasing increases the value of the Jazz.

The Jazz increased in value from $220M in 2003 to $3.5B in 2024 (a 16x increase in value) despite being irrelevant for most of that period. Charlotte and Washington saw similar increases to their valuations. Individual team performance has no bearing on team value. Team value increases as the league increases viewership and huge TV deals are signed.

[SOUL]

The Jazz increased in value from $220M in 2003 to $3.5B in 2024 despite being irrelevant for most of that period. The same goes for Charlotte and Washington. Individual team performance has no bearing on team value. Team value increases as the league increases viewership and huge TV deals are signed.

Why rig for any team then if they're all going to increase in value?

[Case2012]

They don't rig every game and every draft, but they sure as hell do when there's an obvious need to do it. Cavs getting the first pick 3x after Lebron left? Including the pick they traded for Love to gift him a supporting cast? Davis for Paul, Zion for Davis. They do it when it suits them. SA was obvious for Wemby with their history of international player, then moving up every draft since him to gift them a supporting cast for Wemby. The face of the league needs to be on a winning team after all.

[sp6r=underrated]

SIlver doesn't work for the public - he works for the owners. If he starts breaking his promises to the owners, he gets replaced very quickly.

If the owners are involved, what did Utah get for agreeing to keep quiet. Utah has been blatantly tanking to get Flagg. You're alleging that Silver **** em over.

Why would they agree to this?

NBA viewership increasing increases the value of the Jazz.

The Jazz increased in value from $220M in 2003 to $3.5B in 2024 despite being irrelevant for most of that period. The same goes for Charlotte and Washington. Individual team performance has no bearing on team value. Team value increases as the league increases viewership and huge TV deals are signed.

why did they tank?

You're basically alleging the NBA decides the lottery by who will make them the money. If this is true, Utah has no incentive to tank. They know it will never be in the monetary interest of the NBA to give a # 1 pick to Utah?

[Raps in 4]

The Jazz increased in value from $220M in 2003 to $3.5B in 2024 despite being irrelevant for most of that period. The same goes for Charlotte and Washington. Individual team performance has no bearing on team value. Team value increases as the league increases viewership and huge TV deals are signed.

Why rig for any team then if they're all going to increase in value?

The most popular teams and players doing well increases viewership and how much networks pay for TV deals.

[Raps in 4]

If the owners are involved, what did Utah get for agreeing to keep quiet. Utah has been blatantly tanking to get Flagg. You're alleging that Silver **** em over.

Why would they agree to this?

NBA viewership increasing increases the value of the Jazz.

The Jazz increased in value from $220M in 2003 to $3.5B in 2024 despite being irrelevant for most of that period. The same goes for Charlotte and Washington. Individual team performance has no bearing on team value. Team value increases as the league increases viewership and huge TV deals are signed.

why did they tank?

You're basically alleging the NBA decides the lottery by who will make them the money. If this is true, Utah has no incentive to tank. They know it will never be in the monetary interest of the NBA to give a # 1 pick to Utah?

Tanking still guaranteed them a top-6 pick.

[Ari_Emanuel]

The NBA is a formal cartel between the team owners, not some separate organisation independent of them. What's the incentive for most of them to agree to rigging the lottery?

In the aggregate, the outcome that optimizes for the greatest good/greatest number of people is one in which the league maximizes interest in the league as a whole and by proxy, television ratings.

Outside of actually creating a dynasty team, which is incredibly difficult and rare, especially given the new CBA, the next best thing owners can do to inflate the values of their franchises is to grow interest in the game.

There are heads of state openly profiting off their positions to the tune of billions of dollars - what makes you think officials won't arrange to add a couple ping pong balls here and there to push fate toward their most favoured outcomes? Rigging can be done much more subtly than you might think.

[Kurtz]

This take is not rational imo. If you're convinced that the league rigged one draft, you cannot be equally convinced that they didn't rig another. Either they're oppen to rigging or they're not. The NBA has access to very smart people who can figure out how to accomplish a given task.

As for the point others have made that the NBA had no idea that the Mavs would miss the playoffs - I think that's fair. But the point that's being missed here is that Silver didn't have to promise them Flagg- he just had to promise them a favour for a favour. And the opportunity to repay the favour presented itself quickly.

Sure it's rational. I can think the NBA has bad apples (Donaghy, Jontay Porter) without thinking every other player or ref is rigging the league, just like the NBA can have a way different way of drawing the lottery where it's super easy to bend the corner and rig it versus a whole setup with ping pong balls, E&Y, and team representatives being present to make sure there isn't any trickery. Not saying I 100% believed it was rigged, but if there was one to give credence to, it's that one.

The burden isn't upon me to prove a conspiracy theory isn't happening lol. The fact that people think Silver forced the Doncic trade to happen to benefit the Lakers (but not get them past the first round), lose Kyrie and AD to injuries, lose in the play-ins after winning the first game, then work some machinations that can pull out the exact lottery balls needed to make the Mavs win and/or get every other NBA team to agree to help Nico Harrison save face all to make the Mavericks good.. I mean.. lol

This has nothing to do with "bad apples". Either the powers that govern the league are open to rigging or not. Either you believe they're open to it or you believe they aren't. Makes little sense to cherry pick situations.

As far as logistics, imo it's a lot easier to manipulate the lottery done behind closed doors than the envelope being picked in the open. The bent corner theory didn't really make much sense anyway - you can see in the video that any envelope could have taken some damage while the plastic ball was being spun. The frozen envelope theory makes more sense.

Watch on YouTube

[GameOver25]

The NBA doesn't even care it's rigged. If it's so obvious, people will whine and cry for a moment, but eventually something else will make headlines.
Just the world we live in today.

[Rainwater]

"If the NBA is rigged, why didn't they rig playoff sefies x so team y would win?:

Just because not everything is rigged, doesn't mean nothing is.

If you are going to rig one thing why not rig all things? Lol. Legitimacy has already been lost.

[Raps in 4]

"If the NBA is rigged, why didn't they rig playoff sefies x so team y would win?:

Just because not everything is rigged, doesn't mean nothing is.

If you are going to rig one thing why not rig all things? Lol. Legitimacy has already been lost.

Because rigging a lottery behind closed doors is many magnitudes easier than rigging the outcome of a game being played by human beings and being watched by millions of people...

[Packbuckman]

The Jazz increased in value from $220M in 2003 to $3.5B in 2024 despite being irrelevant for most of that period. The same goes for Charlotte and Washington. Individual team performance has no bearing on team value. Team value increases as the league increases viewership and huge TV deals are signed.

Why rig for any team then if they're all going to increase in value?

The most popular teams and players doing well increases viewership and how much networks pay for TV deals.

That’s also why the sports networks like espn has been pushing for Giannis to leave the bucks he is to great of a player to not be on a popular team in their view. I am still hoping he is messing with the media like he likes to do and stays on the bucks lol