The 2025 Draft Lottery has come and gone, but the dust and conspiracy theories around it haven’t settled yet. In what many saw as a rigged affair, the Dallas Mavericks landed the No. 1 overall pick despite having just a 1.8% chance. That outcome has reignited debates about the lottery’s integrity.
Advertisement
Much of the controversy revolves around the sequence of events and the optics it has created: Dallas traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, and then ended up with a golden ticket to sign college sensation Cooper Flagg just a few months later.
NBA communities on social media are buzzing with narratives of conspiracy. Recently, Shaquille O’Neal added some fuel to the fire with a cryptic anecdote dating back to the 1992 Draft, the year ‘Diesel’ was destined to go No. 1. Shaq’s insinuation has found a backer in former NFL star Chad Johnson.
Speaking on Ashley Nevel’s podcast, Shaq had recalled an interaction with then-commissioner David Stern ahead of the Draft night. “He says to me, ‘Can’t wait for you to come to the NBA’. Then he pulls me to the side and asks, ‘You want to play where it’s cold or where it’s hot’?”
Shaq claimed he told the commissioner that he preferred warm weather. And a few days later, the Orlando Magic landed the top pick. Considering the heated nature of the topic right now, this only paints the league in a worse light.
However, not everyone is willing to paint a conspiracy-laden narrative of the Mavericks landing the No. 1 pick. On Nightcap, former Lakers guard Nick Van Exel stated that Dallas, when healthy, already has a championship-caliber roster.
A team like the Utah Jazz, which finished 15th in the Conference, would need Flagg more. And he could have been their centerpiece from the beginning. A true franchise-changer. So, rigging a lottery for no major benefit doesn’t make any sense.
Show co-host Chad Johnson, on the other hand, is confident that there was some foul play involved in this year’s draft lottery. “That’s definitely a fix… Just a coincidence they get rid of Luka and just so happens, of all [the] teams that are in the large to get the number one pick…it’s Dallas,” he said.
Johnson also rejected Exel’s opinion by presenting that the Mavs are in deep trouble due to the injuries of Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving.
Johnson’s confidence in the draft being rigged raises an important question: Is this just fan speculation, or are we overlooking a deeper issue?
If the lottery were truly manipulated, it would imply that Ernst & Young (EY), the accounting firm responsible for overseeing the process, is involved in federal-level malpractice.
The NBA insists the lottery system is airtight, and there’s no public evidence of tampering. Still, this entire saga highlights a growing trust deficit between the league and its fans when it comes to its most important procedures.
People aren’t just asking for answers — they’re asking for transparency.
