Zach Lowe Was Only Media 'Observer' In Room For Lottery Draw

[RealGM Wiretap]

The NBA typically has approximately a dozen media "observers" watch the drawing of its annual lottery in Secaucus, New Jersey.

With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, the NBA limited the media in the room for the drawing to just Zach Lowe of ESPN.

Mark Tatum announced the results in the cafeteria down the hall from the drawing room on live television. 

"If this turns out to be one the NBA finally rigged, I will go down in infamy as having failed to detect the conspiracy," wrote Lowe.

A few team executives lobbied the NBA for an in-person spot in the room for the drawing, but the league resisted the pleas. 

The Minnesota Timberwolves won the lottery with the Golden State Warriors, Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls rounding out the top-4.

Via Zach Lowe/ESPN

[popfan]

Zach Lowe has anointed himself the keeper of the flame. Why? The NBA media are anything but impartial. They often serve the owners. I don't hold him responsible to inform me of corruption in the NBA. Lowe isn't Woodward & Bernstein.

Silly games...

[IWishIWasHarden]

Zach Lowe is overrated. Give me two media personnel next time.

[scrabbarista]

Minny got #1 because the franchise is for sale. It raises the team's perceived value and works as a nice sweetener for the new owner. The lottery's been rigged since it started.

[scrabbarista]

It's a joke that for thousands of years there have been magicians who can keep crowds of unincentivized onlookers from detecting the mechanisms behind their tricks, but we're supposed to believe that ten or twelve (or one) "observers" whose careers literally depend upon the success of the league are supposed to verify irrefutably that the thing isn't rigged. It's rigged, Zach Lowe doesn't know it, and he wouldn't want to know if it were. It's still fun, though.

[SMTBSI]

It's a joke that for thousands of years there have been magicians who can keep crowds of unincentivized onlookers from detecting the mechanisms behind their tricks, but we're supposed to believe that ten or twelve (or one) "observers" whose careers literally depend upon the success of the league are supposed to verify irrefutably that the thing isn't rigged.

Have written extensively on the past as to why the most common draft lotto conspiracies are not plausible. Not going to quote all of that just now.

I will just say in response to this very specific point: it's not a great analogy because anyone who even makes even a very minor hobby of magic learns to spot 90% of the moves in any particular performance without much difficulty, to the point where it's the one or two things that you can't figure out in a given performance that becomes the source of the entertainment value.

If you're trying to pull off a con that has so much at stake as to need to be utterly undetectable no matter how much anyone investigates it (lest potentially your entire league get dissolved), you're talking about a very, very different kind of endeavor.

[scrabbarista]

It's a joke that for thousands of years there have been magicians who can keep crowds of unincentivized onlookers from detecting the mechanisms behind their tricks, but we're supposed to believe that ten or twelve (or one) "observers" whose careers literally depend upon the success of the league are supposed to verify irrefutably that the thing isn't rigged.

Have written extensively on the past as to why the most common draft lotto conspiracies are not plausible. Not going to quote all of that just now.

I will just say in response to this very specific point: it's not a great analogy because anyone who even makes even a very minor hobby of magic learns to spot 90% of the moves in any particular performance without much difficulty, to the point where it's the one or two things that you can't figure out in a given performance that becomes the source of the entertainment value.

If you're trying to pull off a con that has so much at stake as to need to be utterly undetectable no matter how much anyone investigates it (lest potentially your entire league get dissolved), you're talking about a very, very different kind of endeavor.

No one's investigating it. And nothing would get dissolved if anything were proven. (Proven to what degree also comes into question.) Most people would either not believe it or ignore it. Anyways, like I said, I'm not complaining. It's rigged, but still fun.

[SMTBSI]

It's a joke that for thousands of years there have been magicians who can keep crowds of unincentivized onlookers from detecting the mechanisms behind their tricks, but we're supposed to believe that ten or twelve (or one) "observers" whose careers literally depend upon the success of the league are supposed to verify irrefutably that the thing isn't rigged.

Have written extensively on the past as to why the most common draft lotto conspiracies are not plausible. Not going to quote all of that just now.

I will just say in response to this very specific point: it's not a great analogy because anyone who even makes even a very minor hobby of magic learns to spot 90% of the moves in any particular performance without much difficulty, to the point where it's the one or two things that you can't figure out in a given performance that becomes the source of the entertainment value.

If you're trying to pull off a con that has so much at stake as to need to be utterly undetectable no matter how much anyone investigates it (lest potentially your entire league get dissolved), you're talking about a very, very different kind of endeavor.

No one's investigating it. .

Factually incorrect. The NBA retains Ernst and Young to audit the draft lottery. Ernst and Young is a gigantic accounting firm with customers that absolutely dwarf the NBA in revenue. They would never risk their global reputation for one of their smaller clients.

If you would like, I can link you everything I've ever written on this topic, so I don't have to type it again. Let me know.

[scrabbarista]

Have written extensively on the past as to why the most common draft lotto conspiracies are not plausible. Not going to quote all of that just now.

I will just say in response to this very specific point: it's not a great analogy because anyone who even makes even a very minor hobby of magic learns to spot 90% of the moves in any particular performance without much difficulty, to the point where it's the one or two things that you can't figure out in a given performance that becomes the source of the entertainment value.

If you're trying to pull off a con that has so much at stake as to need to be utterly undetectable no matter how much anyone investigates it (lest potentially your entire league get dissolved), you're talking about a very, very different kind of endeavor.

No one's investigating it. .

Factually incorrect. The NBA retains Ernst and Young to audit the draft lottery. Ernst and Young is a gigantic accounting firm with customers that absolutely dwarf the NBA in revenue. They would never risk their global reputation for one of their smaller clients.

If you would like, I can link you everything I've ever written on this topic, so I don't have to type it again. Let me know.

Sure. I'm not naive enough to believe that because something is being audited, therefore there's no corruption involved. That's awfully far-fetched. But like I said, I'm fine with it being rigged. Nothing can be done about it.

[SMTBSI]

Sure. I'm not naive enough to believe that because something is being audited, therefore there's no corruption involved. That's awfully far-fetched. But like I said, I'm fine with it being rigged. Nothing can be done about it.

Of course there could be corruption involved somewhere along the lne in some of the NBA's endeavors. But in the specific case of the draft lotto, there would need to be so many players involved that functionally you are alleging a much, MUCH larger conspiracy than just rigging the lotto. In particular, implicating E&Y in a cover-up has global implications.

My C's are playing right now and I don't want to spend a ton of time on it at this exact moment, but here are a couple summary posts I found real quick.


https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=55653920#p55653920
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=45572665#p45572665
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=46689785#p46689785
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=46723257#p46723257

edit: a few more:
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=46734715#p46734715
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=46756563#p46756563

[scrabbarista]

Minny got #1 because the franchise is for sale. It raises the team's perceived value and works as a nice sweetener for the new owner. The lottery's been rigged since it started.

Hmmm. 2020.