Posted on 05/12/2025 6:53:10 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Basketball fans clapped back at the NBA for allegedly “rigging” the Draft Lottery after the Dallas Mavericks won the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.
After shockingly losing to Houston in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament, Flagg announced that he’d be entering his name in the 2025 NBA Draft. The Naismith Player of the Year is considered the consensus first overall pick, with Jayson Tatum, Colin Cowherd and Charles Barkley all expressing confidence that he will excel at the next level.
The Mavericks, meanwhile, endured a brutal 2024-25 campaign highlighted by the three-team blockbuster trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers and brought Anthony Davis to Dallas.
The shocking move, which had Mavericks fans up in arms, was widely slammed by those across the NBA - especially after Dallas suffered an early exit from the playoffs.
On Monday, however, the Mavericks got much-needed good news upon winning the 2025 NBA Draft lottery despite only having a 1.8% chance of landing the No. 1 pick. The monumental victory - which generated a response from Patrick Mahomes - marks the first time in franchise history that Dallas has won the NBA lottery.
Taking to social media, droves of disgruntled viewers voiced their frustration with the outcome - insisting that the NBA rigged the lottery in order to ensure that the Mavericks were awarded the first overall selection.
(Excerpt) Read more at themirror.com ...
The conspiracy theory is that this was the quid pro quo for the baffling trade of Doncic to LA. If you believe in stuff like that.
The Bucks won their second one exactly fifty years after their first, and only 46 years after Kareem dumped them for the Lakers and won a dozen or so.
LOL. That is a specious way of describing it. The Bucks ownership gave up after Peterson retired. They let the team decay, and stopped trying to win. Kareem tried to hang on, but by the time he was traded, the ownership was happy to see him go. I'm sure the fans were not happy, but at that point, there was nothing withing Kareem could do to make them better.
If Sabonis played in the NBA during his prime, he would have been the GOAT.
“If the fans notice that the product is openly corrupt, they’re going to stop paying for it.”
Might not agree with you.
According to Forbes´ data, the NBA, with its 30 teams generated a total of US$ 10 billion in revenue in the 2021-2022 season, after two years of losses from the pandemic. In 2019, revenues stood at US$ 8.8 billion and fell to US$ 6.2 billion in 2021. The post-pandemic return was 57% growth in revenues. During the 2023/24 season, the 30 franchises comprising the National Basketball Association (NBA) recorded a total revenue amounting to 11.34 billion U.S. dollars. So even with the brutalizing of the game going from a graceful technical game in the 1950’s and 60’, to a fistfight with calls misusing the rule book being tossed out there along with rule changes designed to fill the seats, the game has gotten stronger financially over the years.
The fan has changed to accept the violence and interpretation of the game. Pushing off, climbing backs, traveling, carrying the ball, and the acceptance of lesser shooting percentages has become the norm. I called my last NCAA game in 1989 and it was even going to the way of the fight and lesser ball skills required. So as long as the gladiator atmosphere exists, it will be followed by the thug fans to go with the thug players. It’s not a game. It’s a business and has nothing to do with sport.
wy69
Flagg will be an adequate 6th man but ultimately, an injury-prone bust
1.8% chance last night, and 6% chance when the Pels similarly were rewarded for giving their best player to the Lakers. That’s like 1/1000 already, not counting the others.
Cool. Now do the Orlando Magic. (4x)
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