Certain “coincidences” within the NBA are simply too difficult to look past. LeBron James, an Ohio native, landing on the Cavaliers is one such event that raised quite a few eyebrows. Most recently, the Mavericks being bestowed with Cooper Flagg had a similar effect on fans with Matt Barnes casting suspicion on the legality of it all.
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After Mark Cuban sold his majority stake in the Mavs to the Adelson and Dumont families for $3.5 billion in December 2023, change was inevitable. Despite making the Finals with Luka Doncic leading the way, General Manager Nico Harrison traded away the franchise cornerstone, causing an uproar within the Dallas community.
A mere few months later, the Mavs won the lottery, earning themselves the first pick of the 2025 draft. This came after they had a 1.8% chance of landing this high. While some chalk this up to luck or perhaps divine intervention, Barnes believes otherwise.
“I think the NBA pulled something off for him to be able to get to Dallas after they traded Luka. There’s certain things that happen. Like when LeBron goes to Cleveland and he’s from Cleveland and Derrick Rose goes to Chicago with the first pick and he’s from Chicago.”
This is a serious accusation from Barnes even though he’s not outright saying what all fans are thinking. The theory is that Adam Silver and the league conspired to ‘make it up to’ Adelson and Dumont for the backlash they received after trading Doncic.
Mavs CEO, Rick Welts, spoke on the fortuitous nature of this event. Even he was shocked at the outcome which speaks volumes to the rarity of this occurrence.
“I’m the only person who was in this room and the room 40 years ago. I was in charge of the NBA draft lottery 40 years ago when Patrick Ewing won. I’ve been doing conspiracy theory stories ever since. This is very surreal, personally.”
The NBA has numerous safeguards in place to ensure tampering of the lottery does not take place. Though, it does get a bit fishy when LeBron himself comes out and casts doubt over it all.
“During the lottery pick, Cleveland got the number one pick? ‘Let’s keep LeBron home’ Patrick Ewing to the Knicks. Derrick Rose to the Bulls. I understand the assignment guys,” said LBJ on Pat McAfee’s Show earlier this year.
So, is the NBA draft lottery rigged when it needs to be? Most probably not. Key phrase? ‘Most probably’.
