I absolutely despise any kind of draft lottery.
NBA will never appeal to me again…
largely because of the lottery and the asinine cap rules…
and the “star” treatment of players…
and the “workload management” crap…
and….
OK…. I think that should cover it.
This was a great documentary about the last year of the ABA:
Honestly, I think all sports are rigged somewhat, including the NFL
Or trial by combat?
I need someone to help explain to me how it’s rigged and why.
The Spurs are a small market team and get very little attention nationally. They’re not in the top 10-15 of nationally televised games.
When a major market team seems to get ahead, it’s also rigged because … big market money, or something.
Maybe someone can make a compelling point, but I’m just exhausted that any time any result isn’t what someone wanted, it’s “rigged” and someone should “sue.”
Like, what’s the point of caring about anything if literally everything is a giant conspiracy? We had Lions fans here claiming the Redskins game was rigged. Like, really? No, we got our asses kicked. I’d be willing to wager that in any game the Lions were losing in the last 20 years, people on this forum made a claim the game was rigged.
We’re not that unique. So now extrapolate that across all 32 teams with millions of fans who think something nefarious was happening.
Such scale.
So … what makes something not rigged? When it works out perfectly in your favor? If picks 1-10 in the NBA draft line-up perfectly with expected result/chances? If every call benefits the Lions? And if the call doesn’t benefit the opposing team, does that team’s fan get to call it “rigged” and do they have a point?
Sorry for venting … it’s just exhausting.
We live in a timeline where nothing matters any more and it’s because we’ve made it that way.
Dude they are not sleeping over.
That’s why you pay them
Obviously, there’s no proof. But when a team gets 3 generational players, such as David Robinson, Tim Duncan, and Wembanyama, it’s going to raise some eyebrows. I’m not sure what the hard on is for San Antonio. It doesn’t really make sense other than the fact that if they are in the lottery, they seem like they are going to move up way more often than not.
Then look at the Pistons in the lottery. The only time they moved up in 18 lotteries was for cade Cunningham…hardly a consensus #1OA. Now, could you ever conceive of the Los Angeles Lakers having that kind of “luck”? The optics are just horrible.
Three times in the last 17 years have seen teams with less than a 1.8% chance of winning the lottery…win the lottery. This should happen once every 55 years. Again, it just raises eyebrows. And for the record, I genuinely hate conspiracy theories.
Spurs had 0.7 chance and got the 2nd pick. There is zero proof, but there is zero proof it isnt. Do it live, and it should end the conversation
Your whole post is valid.
My question is, why no transparency? We see the results well after the slots have been picked, and when that much money is at stake, there will always be someone looking to capitalize on it. At the very least, we should all be questioning the process.
Show me the lottery so that I’m assured of its integrity. I’m not asking for anything that should be hard to do.
One more point. They keep teams from tanking, but at the end of the day that really doesn’t matter. Jazz weren’t tanking, the pistons weren’t as well. They were beyond bad. I think bottom 4 teams should be the only teams to get the 1st pick and cant fall out of the top 4. Then teams 5-9 cant go any higher then 5 and cant drop passed 9. Then 10-14
It does seem strange.
San Antonio is going to be a dynasty again. Wembanaya and Castle, and the 2nd pick in this draft.
If the league is rigged, why do they hate the Wizards so much? Big market, big college ball here. True, they would F it up somehow.
Cause the wizards aren’t and have never been good at basketball.
You aren’t the only one to bring up this point. The problem is that the statement assumes a group of nba executives all sat down and planned who will get the pick. That is not my worry or thinking.
My worry is that someone from the Spurs organization, knowing that Wemby would bring the team billions over the course of his career, would have no problem slipping a lottery member 50 million to ‘buy’ the pick.
Ehh maybe so, but they’re one of the most successful franchises in NBA history. They were literally the Patriots of the NBA for 20 years.
Because Wemby was only in year 2 and had the blood clot issue. Trust me, the Spurs will be trading that 2nd pick for Giannis, and then nobody will be able to stop talking about the Spurs all offseason.
Now, to your point about people calling Lions games “rigged”, I agree with you. There’s a huge difference between a bang bang call, and a draft lottery held behind closed doors. Bang bang calls are not rigged.
When there’s not a logical explanation for why a certain unlikely event happened a certain way that can benefit the financial interests of the league.
For example:
I remember when the Pelicans won the Zion lottery as they were about to trade AD to the Lakers. The Lakers also lucked their way into the 4th pick that year to be able to trade for AD in the first place.
I remember the Cavs getting 3 out of 4 #1 picks after LeBron went to Miami. And, as LeBron was getting ready to come back, they got the Andrew Wiggins pick to trade to Minnesota for Kevin Love.
It’s just a very weird set of coincidences that people have picked up on.
To be fair, Cade was the consensus #1 in that draft. He wasn’t on the level of a Wemby or Zion as a prospect, but he was projected as the all-NBA player he’s become. He was arguably rated higher than Anthony Edwards was as a prospect the year before.
The only person that was actually debating whether or not to take Cade was Troy Weaver.
Either you are on a roll or I just got ten time smarter because this is the second thing I’ve agreed with you on TODAY. The only team I can honestly say that I felt tanked was Cleveland to draft LeBron James. I don’t think baseball teams do it. I don’t think football teams do it. I don’t think hockey teams do it. But Cleveland Cavs of 2002-2003….they certainly did!
Clearly you didn’t follow the “process” 76ers. They tanked.
I root for the 76ers…they were just plain bad. They didn’t tank, that team was just complete shit. They were the NBA’s version of the 2008 Detroit Lions….just complete shit. And we know the 2008 Lions did not tank!
Simple math on NBA lottery says 42% of the time, one of the bottom 3 ( at 14% probability assigned) gets the first pick and 58% it’s someone from 4- 15, in the current system since 2019, so 7 lotteries. 7 is a great check in, as 3 out of 7 is actually 42.86%.
So far, bottom 3 has gotten the top pick…
2019- Nope, and just 1 of bottom 3 at 14% stayed in top 3.
2020- Yup and 2 of 3 at bottom stayed top 3
2021- Yup and 2 of 3 stayed
2022- Yup and 2 of 3 stayed
2023- Yup and 1 of 3 stayed
2024- Nope and 1 of 3 stayed
2025- Nope and 0 of 3 stayed.
Bottom 3 have 4 top picks out of 7 tries, and 9 top 3 slots out of 21.
So, statistically, the top pick is going ahead of probability to one of the 3 worst teams (probability is 3 times) and exactly as many top 3 slots as predicted (9/21=42.85%)
When the top pick has been sniped, it’s been from a 6%, a 1.8% and 3%, so people are buggin on that unlikely probability set, but to the NBA, its doing exactly what is intended.