14 Reasons Why the NBA Draft Lottery Is Rigged

Just kidding! The NBA Draft Lottery isn’t rigged. Sorry to break it to you. There are so many practical and logistical reasons why it couldn’t be rigged, but for clear proof, look no further than the NBA’s YouTube channel. First, representatives from every team, members of the media, and an independent accounting firm oversee the process first-hand. In recent years, the league has even gone as far as to record the entire proceeding and post it on their YouTube channel. Just watch for yourself.

And before you start, theories of “weighted ping pong balls” would be silly to throw out there considering multiple combinations are drawn and any weighted ball would impact other outcomes and eventually be obvious. For this event to be rigged, everyone would have to be in on it. In this day and age, no one could keep a secret that big.

So, you may be asking yourself, why is this article titled “14 Reasons Why the NBA Draft Lottery is Rigged”? One, because I feel no remorse for clickbaiting the conspiracy theorists that actually believe this ridiculous fantasy. Two, because I felt like the people who don’t fall into this line of thinking would actually be relieved rather than feeling clickbaited. If that’s not the case, oops! Sorry! Three, because I’m going to list the 14 arguments people will make for the NBA Draft Lottery being rigged no matter who gets the #1 pick on Tuesday night. And four, it was a good title. The best I could think of. It got you to click on it and read this far, didn’t it?

Why would I do this? To prove that regardless of who actually wins the lottery, there’s always some dumb reason that people can come up with to argue that the lottery is rigged. It doesn’t matter who wins. Even when the Pelicans won in 2019, people claimed it was because the NBA felt bad about Anthony Davis forcing his way out. How can anyone actually believe that the NBA wanted Zion Williamson in New Orleans? So, I figured if I came up with a reason that the lottery is rigged for every team before it happens, that would help prove my point. I probably won’t change anyone’s mind, but I don’t care. This is more just for fun. Not all of these will be good, but not all of them are supposed to be good. As you know, not every argument for why the lottery is rigged is. I will say, I could use some of these for multiple teams and I’m sure they will be used for different teams, but I wanted to come up with 14 different ones.

1. Rockets: “The NBA is trying to make up for the James Harden trade.”

2. Pistons: “The NBA wants to replenish value in one of their historic franchises.”

3. Magic: “The NBA is repaying the city of Orlando for helping them form a bubble last year.”

4. Thunder: “The NBA wants to keep one of their smallest markets relevant. They’re trying to keep stars in Oklahoma City.”

5. Cavaliers: “The NBA loves giving the Cavaliers #1 picks, they do it all the time!”

6. Timberwolves: “The NBA wants to make the Timberwolves into their next young superteam.”

7. Raptors: “The NBA is giving the Raptors the #1 pick to make up for them having to play outside of Toronto all year.”

8. Bulls: “The NBA wants another star in Chicago next to Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic.”

9. Kings: “The NBA is tired of the Kings being bad because their playoff drought is not good for the league.”

10. Pelicans: “The NBA wants to do everything they can to keep Zion in New Orleans.”

11. Hornets: “The NBA let the Hornets jump up last year to get LaMelo Ball and now they’re doing it again this year. Suspicious? They’re helping their buddy Michael Jordan out! They give him high picks all the time! Kwane Brown, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, he just keeps blowing them!”

12. Spurs: “The NBA wants to give Gregg Popovich another star to coach before he retires.”

13. Pacers: “The NBA wants to give Cade Cunningham a young roster with proven playoff pedigree where he can succeed for years to come.”

14. Warriors: “The NBA wants the Warriors to dominate the league again and they want to help out their golden child Steph Curry!”

Photo: (Steven Freeman/NBAE via Getty Images)