If the draft is rigged...

[YogurtProducer]

They could easily alleviate the conspiracy by conducting the live lottery in front of the cameras like the NHL does, doing it in a back room with consistently suspicious outcomes does not lead to a lot of confidence.

"consistently suspicious" and then like 4 times in 20 years get named. That is not consistently.

Why didn't Brooklyn get rewarded for losing KD in 2024?

Why didn't OKC ever get rewarded for their players leaving? (and don't say small market then turn around and use NOP as proof lol)

Why didn't TOR get rewarded for Kawhi?

Why did the league rig Wemby to SAS and not NYK or something?

[Potential]

I stopped believing the NBA was rigged when we were allowed to beat the Heat in game 7 of the 2016 ECSF to prevent a Wade vs LeBron ECF showdown. Yesterday was a little suspicious but maybe it was a coincidence... I'll let it slide for now

[nikster]

Lol draft conspiracists are wild. An unlikely outcome doesn’t make it an impossible outcome. You can’t call a 1.7% chance of winning something a conspiracy…

LeBron leaves the Cavs in 2011 and they win the lottery with 2.8% odds.

LeBron returns to Cleveland and needs a supporting cast. The Cavs win the lottery with 1.7% odds and trade the pick for an All-Star.

LeBron goes to LAL and needs a supporting cast. The Pelicans with the lottery with 6% odds and send AD to the Lakers.

LeBron is getting old and ratings are in the gutter. The Mavs send Luka to the Lakers and win the lottery with 1.8% odds.

Either the basketball gods are real and they LOVE LeBron and reward every team that helps him, or this is clearly a pattern of rigging. The league, and all franchise owners have much to gain from the face of their sport doing well.

Lebron leaves the Cavs in 2018 and they lose the lottery with 14% odds. Unless your point is the league somehow knew Lebron was coming back to Cleveland, and now your conspiracy is spreading to include direct involvement of players which is crazy.

Pelicans win the lottery when it makes no impact whatsoever on the trade the Lakers make. Lakers got AD because he demanded a trade to a specific location, and the haul the Pelicans got for him was still solid. Why do you need to rig things when Stats are outright demanding they go to LA?

So the Mavs agreed to the trade on the condition the league rig the Lottery, but the Mavs were planning on competing after the trade. The only reason they made the lottery is injuries to both Kyrie and AD, and even then we're only a single game away from making the playoffs. Is that all part of the conspiracy as well? (And as crazy as the Luka trade is, i don't even see it as significantly improving this team for him this year or next)

This is clearly a pattern only apparent when looking for it

[Yeezus_]

Listen to Zach Lowe’s latest podcast if you think this is rigged lmaa. He recounts the entire event. Raptors had a shot to win it before the last ball was drawn

[Yeezus_]

LeBron leaves the Cavs in 2011 and they win yhe lottery with 2.8% odds.

LeBron returns to Cleveland and needs a supporting cast. The Cavs win the lottery with 1.7% odds and trade the pick for an All-Star.

LeBron goes to LAL and needs a supporting cast. The Pelicans with the lottery with 6% odds and send AD to the Lakers.

LeBron is getting old and ratings are in the gutter. The Mavs send Luka to the Lakers and win the lottery with 1.8% odds.

Either the basketball gods are real and they LOVE LeBron and reward every team that helps him, or this is clearly a pattern of rigging. The league, and all franchise owners have much to gain from the face of their sport doing well.

#2 happened before LBJ left Miami man

You focus on teams with low odds of winning these lottery's, but ignore the actual reality.

In #1 - there was a 2.8% odds, but they still had the 8th best odds. There was a 28% SOMEONE with a 7.5% chance or worse was going to win.

In #3 - 6% is not a small % chance lol. They were the 7th best odds in the draft. There was a 26% chance NO or someone with "worse" odds would win that draft.

In #4 - Again. There was an 18.5% chance someone from the bottom 5 would win lottery.

Look over the last decade. The teams in the top 4 have won 7 times, and teams have jumped up 3 times. Based on the fact there is a 20-30% chance that teams from the bottom half of the lottery would win this exactly lines up with the math (which in a small sample is honestly surprising).

Y'all just don't understand numbers and don't realize these things happening is 100% predictable.

LeBron signing with Cleveland in 2014 was a foregone conclusion for a long time.

And there is no reason for the NBA to rig the lottery every season. They do it when needed, such as when a team sends their franchise player to a big market. With that fan base livid, the NBA placates them with the top pick.

okay man. You believe what you want to believe contrary to actual people being in the room sharing their experiences.

[ItsDanger]

What were the odds of Dallas, San Antonio, Philadelphia as top 3? Probably very remote.

[WhatsaTDot]

I wonder if there's a conspiracy when someone wins millions in the lottery. The odds are far worse. But it happens.

Therefore it must be a conspiracy.

[WhatsaTDot]

What were the odds of Dallas, San Antonio, Philadelphia as top 3? Probably very remote.

0.0008% to answer your question.

[sidsid]

A lot of good long term decisions were made by the Spurs along the way, but the Jak trade being the last key to the puzzle that unlocked this ridiculous timeline for them and sent us into the nether zone isn't rigging, but some form of curse that we're paying for that title run.

[WhatsaTDot]

A lot of good long term decisions were made by the Spurs along the way, but the Jak trade being the last key to the puzzle that unlocked this ridiculous timeline for them and sent us into the nether zone isn't rigging, but some form of curse that we're paying for that title run.

Made a deal with the proverbial devil for the 2019 chip!

[basketballto]

I wonder if there's a conspiracy when someone wins millions in the lottery. The odds are far worse. But it happens.

Therefore it must be a conspiracy.

Millions of tickets are played and the odds are 12,000,000 for 649 and on average someone wins about every 4/7 draws. More tickets are played when the pot grows. The numbers add up.

What happened with the first pick should happen less one once every 50 years (2% odds) but over the last 40 years we've had 5 win the top pick with (2% odds , one with 2.79%). The numbers don't add up.

Calling it a conspiracy makes it sound like a Russian cold war novel and tries to discredit the facts. This is just WWE. Sports entertainment. Numbers don't lie.

[basketballto]

They could easily alleviate the conspiracy by conducting the live lottery in front of the cameras like the NHL does, doing it in a back room with consistently suspicious outcomes does not lead to a lot of confidence.

"consistently suspicious" and then like 4 times in 20 years get named. That is not consistently.

Why didn't Brooklyn get rewarded for losing KD in 2024?

Why didn't OKC ever get rewarded for their players leaving? (and don't say small market then turn around and use NOP as proof lol)

Why didn't TOR get rewarded for Kawhi?

Why did the league rig Wemby to SAS and not NYK or something?

Just because they rig some draft picks doesn't mean all picks are rigged.

New York wasn't in the lotto that year.

Last year's draft didn't have a generational player and the top picks could be swapped with lower picks. Not much of a prize for Brooklyn.

OKC won the trade from the start. Why would you need to reward anyone.

Toronto got #4 for the bubble season but why reward for Kawhi when they won a championship.


Your missing the point. You don't get rewarded but the nba may decide to put generational players where they want.

[UnderdogRaptors]

This isn't a stupid conspiracy theory though. It's a logical conclusion. Billionaire owners are colluding to increase the value of their shared product. It doesn't make sense for them not to collude.

Fans care about competitive balance. Owners care about the value of their investment increasing.

I really don't think the incentive is there. I'm supposed to believe that someone like Flagg going to the Mavs is going to increase revenue sharing and league valuation so much that splitting it among 30 teams out weighs the benefit an individual owner would receive from jersey sales and multiple deep post season runs and possibly a title? That's not even getting into the massive risk to reputation if something like this was found out

Sending Luka to the Lakers increased revenue for the league. The Mavs getting Flagg was just part of the transaction.

One of the best posters here obv it was a fleece job by LAL so they had to promise something back

[YogurtProducer]

I really don't think the incentive is there. I'm supposed to believe that someone like Flagg going to the Mavs is going to increase revenue sharing and league valuation so much that splitting it among 30 teams out weighs the benefit an individual owner would receive from jersey sales and multiple deep post season runs and possibly a title? That's not even getting into the massive risk to reputation if something like this was found out

Sending Luka to the Lakers increased revenue for the league. The Mavs getting Flagg was just part of the transaction.

One of the best posters here obv it was a fleece job by LAL so they had to promise something back

DAL was gunning for the POs so it definitely was not promised before

[CPT]

Sending Luka to the Lakers increased revenue for the league. The Mavs getting Flagg was just part of the transaction.

One of the best posters here obv it was a fleece job by LAL so they had to promise something back

DAL was gunning for the POs so it definitely was not promised before

This is the funniest part of these smooth-brained conspiracy theories.

Was Dallas in on it just enough to make it beliveable? Is Kyrie Irving's ACL a co-conpirator? HOW DEEP DOES THIS GO???

[Coco Costanza]

As annoying as this was, it was always a possibility, and I'd often run tankathon sims where the Mavs and Spurs jumped up. Sometimes the Rockets would end up with the second pick. The day before the draft I kept having the Spurs jumping up. Still sucks, but the problem is the lottery process itself. Teams like the Warriors shouldn't be able to jump as high as they did.

[RoteSchroder]

I wonder if there's a conspiracy when someone wins millions in the lottery. The odds are far worse. But it happens.

Therefore it must be a conspiracy.

Millions of tickets are played and the odds are 12,000,000 for 649 and on average someone wins about every 4/7 draws. More tickets are played when the pot grows. The numbers add up.

What happened with the first pick should happen less one once every 50 years (2% odds) but over the last 40 years we've had 5 win the top pick with (2% odds , one with 2.79%). The numbers don't add up.

Calling it a conspiracy makes it sound like a Russian cold war novel and tries to discredit the facts. This is just WWE. Sports entertainment. Numbers don't lie.

For 6/49
If 1 million ppl buy tickets, the odds of one winner is 8.9%
7.4 million tickets, 50% chance
23 million tickets, 90%

Just using ChatGPT at this point

[UnderdogRaptors]

One of the best posters here obv it was a fleece job by LAL so they had to promise something back

DAL was gunning for the POs so it definitely was not promised before

This is the funniest part of these smooth-brained conspiracy theories.

Was Dallas in on it just enough to make it beliveable? Is Kyrie Irving's ACL a co-conpirator? HOW DEEP DOES THIS GO???

I feel it's rigged and watch it as entertainment like wwe doesn't make me bad I felt it would be some bs and I was right

[Raps in 4]

I wonder if there's a conspiracy when someone wins millions in the lottery. The odds are far worse. But it happens.

Therefore it must be a conspiracy.

Sure, if that person gave his kidney to the lottery organizer's sick wife and then won the lottery right after that.

[Raps in 4]

#2 happened before LBJ left Miami man

You focus on teams with low odds of winning these lottery's, but ignore the actual reality.

In #1 - there was a 2.8% odds, but they still had the 8th best odds. There was a 28% SOMEONE with a 7.5% chance or worse was going to win.

In #3 - 6% is not a small % chance lol. They were the 7th best odds in the draft. There was a 26% chance NO or someone with "worse" odds would win that draft.

In #4 - Again. There was an 18.5% chance someone from the bottom 5 would win lottery.

Look over the last decade. The teams in the top 4 have won 7 times, and teams have jumped up 3 times. Based on the fact there is a 20-30% chance that teams from the bottom half of the lottery would win this exactly lines up with the math (which in a small sample is honestly surprising).

Y'all just don't understand numbers and don't realize these things happening is 100% predictable.

LeBron signing with Cleveland in 2014 was a foregone conclusion for a long time.

And there is no reason for the NBA to rig the lottery every season. They do it when needed, such as when a team sends their franchise player to a big market. With that fan base livid, the NBA placates them with the top pick.

okay man. You believe what you want to believe contrary to actual people being in the room sharing their experiences.

I have no reason to trust the league. It's a profit-maximizing business. They have no legal obligation to fairly administer the lottery. It's a performance for the fans.