Question for the "Draft Lottery is Rigged" Crowd

[LegendOfSalmons]

Sigh, this thread makes me so sad. Low social trust is an immense problem. And this thread is a good example of how many well-meaning people have almost non-existent belief in the integrity of others.

I have no solution to this.

Also just as sad if not more, are people who don't question anything at all and believe everything they're told with zero ability to critically think for themselves. I too don't have a solution to that one.

[SOUL]

Small market teams represent 2/3rds of ownership while the remaining 1/3rd is responsible for most of the revenue. Doesn't take a genius to understand the politics of this.

This doesn't answer anything I said though lol. So you're saying that any trade/result can be called rigging if it makes sense?

If you have logical reason for explaining something that would happen in a vacuum in 1 of only 10 million scenarios, then it is common sense in following that reasoning. Again, this is the first time I've ever believed that the lottery is rigged but I can no longer ignore the obvious results that would lead any logical person to believe that it is. Again you never get 87% of people to believe something is rigged without clear and logical evidence that points to it. After all conspiracy theorists are again and again ignored for good reason by the majority. Point is i feel like I can no longer ignore it if the results keep slapping me in the face.

1 in 10 million scenarios? I just pressed the Tankathon sim button ONCE and guess who got the first pick? The Mavs . Then Charlotte.

Next time, Raptors moved up 6 and got 1st, Kings moved up 11 and got 2nd, 3rd spin was more "normal", 4th spin, Nets got first, Rockets moved up 7, Spurs moved up 6..

It takes just one drawing to get a wonky result. These aren't aggregates. People are getting what they wanted by flattening the odds of tanking because people hated bad teams being bad. 14% odds versus 2% odds isn't some crazy amount.

Hell, Utah had a 48% chance to get the 5th spot, barely less than their 1-4 spots combined.

[eyriq]

This question is specifically for the folks who believe the Lottery is rigged.

What would the NBA have to do for you to believe the Lottery is legitimate?

Run the lottery live

[sp6r=underrated]

Knock it off

[SOUL]

Also just as sad if not more, are people who don't question anything at all and believe everything they're told with zero ability to critically think for themselves. I too don't have a solution to that one.

The moon landing is fake, the earth is flat,, all vaccines are useless, the Holocaust isn't real, etc...

See the slippery slope that goes down once you start just thinking everything isn't real? Not saying that people who think the NBA is rigged believe all of those things, but there is way more overlap in people who believe those things who then just think everything is rigged/fake/not real/etc... doesn't take much of a big leap to thinking all sports are rigged..

The hilarious thing is that all of these scenarios people are bringing out to explain how it was done literally take a way lower probability of things happening in an exact order than a 2% lottery chance versus a 14% lottery chance.

[HeatIn5]

show them picking it. like lottery balls or even a guy picking pieces of paper out of a bucket. no reason to not do this except because its obviously rigged

Watch on YouTube

Enjoy

this should have been the end of the thread.

[DavidSterned]

Awwww. It's like someone just found out that Santa isn't real....

[Clocian]

Knock it off

[ILC]

show them picking it. like lottery balls or even a guy picking pieces of paper out of a bucket. no reason to not do this except because its obviously rigged

Here you go

Watch on YouTube

[ImmortalD24]

This question is specifically for the folks who believe the Lottery is rigged.

What would the NBA have to do for you to believe the Lottery is legitimate?

I wouldnt say the draft is necessarily "rigged".

HOWEVER, Dallas sits at a 1.3% chance to win the #1 pick.

After the whole Doncic debacle, and their GM choosing specifically LA as the team to send him, I would 100% believe it was rigged should they magically land Cooper Flagg.

This is similar to New Orleans trading away Anthony Davis and then them winning the Zion Williamson lottery with 6% chance.

The better question is how much happenstance has to take place for non-believers to buy into the idea that it is absolutely rigged.

You ok broski?

[FarBeyondDriven]

Is it fair to say you believe the NBA fixes lotteries and trades?

If they can get away with it yes

Then if that is true the games aren't legitimate because the people who control the teams, the owners, are intentionally manipulating outcomes to ensure certain teams win.

The title has no meaning.

you're finally getting it. Well done!

[FarBeyondDriven]

They know they'll have their defenders of the league no matter what. People can't quit the NBA. They know this. They owed the Mavericks for helping them with their poor ratings, that was the most important part. They don't want to be seen as liars to those that help them so that other teams can do their bidding for them again when things get tough ratings wise again.

Also, to add to this, there are people that were told the results months ago that still are saying it's not rigged and that we're crazy for thinking that despite predicting what would happen months ago.

Why did the NBA give SA Wemby?

why are you disingenuously asking questions that many people have answered already? What a weird schtick you have

[VFX]

This question is specifically for the folks who believe the Lottery is rigged.

What would the NBA have to do for you to believe the Lottery is legitimate?

I wouldnt say the draft is necessarily "rigged".

HOWEVER, Dallas sits at a 1.3% chance to win the #1 pick.

After the whole Doncic debacle, and their GM choosing specifically LA as the team to send him, I would 100% believe it was rigged should they magically land Cooper Flagg.

This is similar to New Orleans trading away Anthony Davis and then them winning the Zion Williamson lottery with 6% chance.

The better question is how much happenstance has to take place for non-believers to buy into the idea that it is absolutely rigged.

You ok broski?

Yeah. I just finished putting away my crystal ball.

[th87]

Why did the biggest market in the NBA suck for 2 decades? Can any of the conspiracy theorists answer that one?

Yup. I always have 2 questions for "NBA is rigged" crowd.
1. Why did the NBA allow NYC's team to suck for decades?
2. Why did the NBA hand 3 can't miss HOFers to the San Antonio Spurs who have 0 national profile?

Maybe so apologists can point to these as proof it isn't.

No one knows why. But we do know:

- Large market teams generally benefit from suspect officiating and trades
- Improbable lottery outcomes occur often adhering to a narrative
- A ref already got caught betting on games and the NBA squashed the investigation implicating others
- It'd be very lucrative to skew preferred outcomes
- No one cares that much to do anything about it

[Sixers in 4]

Also just as sad if not more, are people who don't question anything at all and believe everything they're told with zero ability to critically think for themselves. I too don't have a solution to that one.

The moon landing is fake, the earth is flat,, all vaccines are useless, the Holocaust isn't real, etc...

See the slippery slope that goes down once you start just thinking everything isn't real? Not saying that people who think the NBA is rigged believe all of those things, but there is way more overlap in people who believe those things who then just think everything is rigged/fake/not real/etc... doesn't take much of a big leap to thinking all sports are rigged..

The hilarious thing is that all of these scenarios people are bringing out to explain how it was done literally take a way lower probability of things happening in an exact order than a 2% lottery chance versus a 14% lottery chance.

Or the Wuhan virus came from bat soup, not a Chinese lab. Oh, wait. Why are we pretending the obvious isn't true? The NBA has a strong financial incentive to rig the NBA draft as long as they think they can get away with it because different markets are not all created equal as it relates to generating revenue for the league and have varying fan interest levels.

It's funny because just looking at your post, I can tell your politics. What about if I told you that Walmart had the opportunity to manipulate prices so it would help their bottom line without worrying about prices being forced down by competition in the same way that the NBA would benefit from manipulating drafts? How would you respond? Would you have unquestioning faith in the fairness of their pricing? Of course not;

I get that the NBA isn't real life; it's a kids' game that has been turned into entertainment for the masses, but can we at least all be honest here? The NBA has a huge financial incentive to fix the NBA draft so why wouldn't they try?

[NZB2323]

show them picking it. like lottery balls or even a guy picking pieces of paper out of a bucket. no reason to not do this except because its obviously rigged

They did this for the first lottery and people said it was rigged for the Knicks because the New York envelope was cold.

There’s no evidence of the envelope being cold or that lottery being fixed, but some people like to believe in conspiracy theories.

[Tacoma]

I have been a big proponent that the NBA lottery is not rigged.

But... having said that... the trade Luka for Davis, Flagg and a pick... now makes more sense.

[NBA_is_cringe]

the guy already explained obviously it doesn't matter if they show a lottery ball machine if they just pick random numbers and say... yeah the mavs won. no we didn't say ahead of time what numbers correspond to what team but just trust us. i mean my god how stupid could you possibly be. is anyone supposed to actually believe that you don't understand what's wrong with that?

[SOUL]

It's funny because just looking at your post, I can tell your politics. What about if I told you that Walmart had the opportunity to manipulate prices so it would help their bottom line in the same way that the NBA would benefit from manipulating NBA drafts? How would you respond? Would you have unquestioning faith in the fairness of their pricing? Of course not

Yeah, you're right, I live in reality - that's my politics feel free to refute any of the criticism of conspiratal points I made in my post.

Not sure how a Walmart example of price manipulation would even work as a 1:1 comparison but I'd like to see it fleshed out. The NBA is making bank from TV deals and sports betting on top of so many other things that you can legitimately say that them helping out any team would help their bottom line by either getting more out of floundering teams/markets and reviving them versus keeping a team like Dallas relevant.

[Pattycakes]

This question is specifically for the folks who believe the Lottery is rigged.

What would the NBA have to do for you to believe the Lottery is legitimate?

Everyone posted the exact “this outcome would be evidence of rigged” ahead of the lottery and it happened exactly. I don’t see point of thread