The Dallas Mavericks stunned the NBA in February when they traded five-time All-NBA first teamer Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers. The move sparked an open rebellion among Mavericks fans, who started a movement to fire Dallas general manager Nico Harrison.
Dončić himeslf seemed to endorse the push to receive the man who traded him of his job. A “Fire Nico” basketball jersey autographed by Dončić appeared in an online auction on Monday.
But it now looks like Harrison and the Mavericks will have the last laugh. Despite reported odds of only 1.8 percent, Dallas won the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft lottery on Monday giving Harrison the right to take generational prospect Cooper Flagg, who declared his intention to enter the draft after a single year at Duke when he led the Blue Devils to the Final Four.
The Mavericks finished the season at 39-43, in the 10th seeded position in the NBA’s Western Conference. Dallas even had a chance to make the playoffs, but lost in the play-in tournament to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Suspicions About Lottery’s Credibility Spread Online
The Utah Jazz who won only 17 games and had 14 percent odds to win the top pick in the lottery, somehow ended up picking fifth. The Washington Wizards, who also went into the lottery with a 14 percent chance of securing the rights to Flagg after an 18-win season, got pick No. 6.
The bizarre draft results did little for the NBA’s credibility, as fans quickly took to their social media accounts to blast the lottery as “rigged.”
Not only fans, but NBA players as well found the results of the lottery difficult to believe. Lebron James, who became teammates with Dončić on the Lakers as a result of the trade, seemed to find situation hilarious.
Kevin Love of the Miami Heat also responded with disbelief.
Oddly enough, the allegedly “rigged” draft came 40 years to the day after the first-ever NBA Draft lottery — which has gone down in sports history as one of the most notorious examples of “rigging” the pick, at least according to many fans.
40 Years Ago Today, Another ‘Rigged’ Lottery
In 1985, Georgetown center Patrick Ewing was viewed much as Flagg is seen today — as a once-in-a-generation, “sure thing” prospect. The No. 1 draft pick went to the New York Knicks. In that draft, each team’s logo was placed in an envelope which then-commissioner David Stern would pick out of a drum. Fans believed that the envelope containing the Knicks logo had been refrigerated beforehand, so that Stern could pick it out by feeling for the only “frozen” envelope.
Not often mentioned: Jack Wagner, who put the envelopes in drum, was a partner at Ernst & Whitney. E&W audited Gulf & Western, who owned the Knicks. Stern said he was unaware.
The belief that the 1985 draft was fixed has not gone away, and Monday’s results with the pick that will almost certainly result in Flagg headed to Dallas to replace Dončić is likely to spark suspicions that will also endure. Even a former presidential candidate registered his own skepticism.
Mavericks CEO Rick Welts said that he was there during, and in fact, in charge of the 1985 lottery — and was again present on Monday when the lottery went the Mavericks’ way.
“I’ve been doing conspiracy theory stories ever since,” Welts said, as quoted by Washington Post NBA correspondent Ben Gulliver. “This is very surreal, personally.”
Fans Say NBA Draft Rigged as Mavericks Can Replace Luka Doncic With Cooper Flagg