Social Media Is Convinced the NBA Rigged the Draft Lottery for Mavericks After They Traded Away Luka Doncic
Nam Y. Huh/AP
A not-insignificant portion of the NBA’s social media community genuinely believes that the league rigged the Draft Lottery for the Dallas Mavericks.
On Monday evening, the Mavericks were awarded the no. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft — a pick that will almost certainly be used to select star prospect Cooper Flagg. Going into the lottery, the Mavericks sat at the 11th pick in the draft and had just a 1.8% of winning the top pick. Per ESPN research, it was the largest jump in draft position in the history of the lottery.
The lottery win was even more notable due to the fact that, months prior, the Mavericks made the most shocking trade in league history when they sent point guard Luka Doncic to the Lakers. Thanks to the results of the Draft Lottery, the backlash from that move has quieted.
Because of this, NBA conspiracy theorists convinced themselves that the league rewarded the Mavericks for sending Doncic to the big-market Los Angeles Lakers by giving them the chance to draft another star.
The NBA has had to defend itself against allegations of Draft Lottery tampering for decades. Arguably the most famous example came from 1985’s lottery, which the New York Knicks won before eventually using that top pick on Patrick Ewing. Some believe the NBA used a frozen envelope, allowing then-commissioner David Stern to pick it up out of the pile and award the Knicks the top pick.
