TraderJake09 | Bucks

277 | 4 hours ago

Oh, don’t worry, there will still be plenty of conspiracy theories

Especially if they use team logo ping pong balls

scully19

81 | 4 hours ago

Came here for this, do they really think those that believe conspiracy theories just needed to see something for them to stop? Just means it happened somewhere else or some other way

TraderJake09 | Bucks

45 | 3 hours ago

Can’t wait for the riveting Youtube breakdown of how some team logos are bigger, therefore using more material and weighing their ping pong balls down

Or how some team’s ping pong balls are actually thinner. Or a thousand other breakdowns

GfunkWarrior28 | Warriors

6 | 2 hours ago

New York Knickerbockers: #1 overall pick where?

dweet | Trail Blazers

1 | 11 minutes ago

You’re giving them a headstart.

ATLSlutStretcher

-1 | 3 hours ago

Me when I don’t know how the lottery works. There aren’t even team logos on the balls. The whole process is available to watch.

Gonna leave this up, but damn, I can’t read. My bad.

HokageEzio | Knicks

6 | 3 hours ago

The entire context of this conversation was if they hypothetically did team logos on the ping pong balls.

ATLSlutStretcher

0 | 3 hours ago

Damn, I guess I have poor reading comprehension. Cheers.

9061xRG | Wizards

7 | 3 hours ago

I’m already cooking bruh; greased balls? Weighted balls? Magnets in the balls? The world is my oyster.

Duck8Quack

4 | 3 hours ago

Have you seen some of the illusions magicians are able to pull off.

If the NBA controls all the cameras and the angles; and they control the lottery machine, they could still rig it.

schooli00 | TOR

7 | 2 hours ago

Penn & Teller can 100% design a rigged lottery system that can fool a live audience. Even better, they just issue it as a challenge for their show, and let other magicians compete for the best solution.

Dunno why people are so adament that it requires being a conspiracy theorist to believe it can be done.

No-Owl-6246 | Lakers

5 | 2 hours ago

New idea for the draft. Every team gets 1 minute to doctor their lottery ball in some way. The teams with the worst records get to go last so they can see how the other teams have doctored their ball.

Every year the draft is a different event where the teams have to figure out the best way to rig it in their favor.

MrsBrightside69

2 | 42 minutes ago

Make the GMs compete in an MXC-style competition where the ping pong balls are giants boulders

AndrewHainesArt | PHI

-1 | an hour ago

At some point we turned “conspiracy theory” into a dismissive term to ignore discussion online and submit to groupthink.

The term was invented by the CIA for christs sake, about the JFK assassination which they definitely orchestrated, so the actual definition is based in reality to obscure discussion so I guess it’s being used correctly overall lol

trustabro | Heat

2 | 3 hours ago

It’s a cold ball, of course (The Patrick Ewing Theory)

Banneduser1112 | West

1 | 2 hours ago

It’s going to be easier to rig with the new logo system.

Magnet balls is easy - you mix magnetized powder into the plastic of the balls you want to win.

pauIblartmaIIcop

2 | 2 hours ago

exactly. unfortunately there will always be dumb people that think they saw something everyone else missed

goingtothegreek | Timberwolves

1 | 3 hours ago

The years of damage and current state of the nba have already done enough damage. NBA’s reputation is forever tarnished for me.

I’ll see everyone in October

scully19

11 | 3 hours ago

Just wait until the richest owner in the league gets a slap on the wrist for blatant cap circumvention

goingtothegreek | Timberwolves

3 | 3 hours ago

Surely there would be outrage amongst the fans and media if this happened!

scully19

2 | 3 hours ago

I imagine so, it’s whether it’s enough to make a difference to them I guess though. If he doesn’t receive a good penalty for it all bets are off

Redundantmoth

2 | 3 hours ago

He got the 5th pick in the strongest draft class this decade. It’s also the highest it could possibly be. They’re going to hit the clippers with a heavy punishment but the lottery was the make good.

Banneduser1112 | West

2 | an hour ago

Letting the tankers win also helped sell the owners on tanking reform.

makemeking706 | Knicks

1 | 2 hours ago

Of course it will continue, but why even have a process that makes it easy for them to craft seemingly plausible theories?

RallyPigeon | WAS

0 | 3 hours ago

Yes, people will just say they pre-set the way things go lol

goingtothegreek | Timberwolves

2 | 3 hours ago

To be fair this doesn’t seem too hard to rig regardless

RallyPigeon | WAS

0 | 3 hours ago

I never said I also don’t believe it is lol

Some draft lotteries work out too perfectly for what the NBA needs.

goingtothegreek | Timberwolves

1 | 3 hours ago

Yeah exactly regardless the reputation is tarnished

Kiriegloom | Bulls

-1 | 3 hours ago

Based on what? Narratives people have come up with? People say the Wemby draft was rigged as if the league needs small market San Antonio to be a premier team in the league for… reasons?

David Stern famously said his dream Finals matchup would be Lakers vs. Lakers. What the league wants is blindingly obvious. A lot of these supposed rigged drafts go directly AGAINST what the league would want

What the league would ACTUALLY want is for every big star to go to New York, Chicago, Toronto, LA, and Dallas. Instead we get fucking Zion to New Orleans as if “sending” him there over a big market was worth the AD trade. Or how for some reason the league would willingly give a bunch of firsts to Cleveland to… make Lebron come back to that small market with a shit team?

RedtheGamer100 | Hornets

5 | 3 hours ago

Franchise that got drose on 2 percent prob of course gonna bend over backwards defendin the lottery 😂

Banneduser1112 | West

4 | an hour ago

Oh come on man, the Spurs narrative is about expanding into Europe. Spurs have the biggest footprint in Europe - Wemby’s fave team growing up so he may have just told them he’s not coming over unless he goes there - so that’s how that happened.

Lebron’s Cleveland return and title completely rehabilitated him. It saved the rep of the face of the league, absolutely worth it to the league to rehabilitate him. Also Gilbert was the richest owner until Balmer showed up and the minute Lebron left the franchise lost half its value. The lottery picks were a make good.

ATLSlutStretcher

0 | 3 hours ago

Me when I’ve never actually learned how the draft lottery works.

goingtothegreek | Timberwolves

1 | an hour ago

It’s worked out in the NBA’s favor way too many times, the fact it wasn’t public to begin with is all you need to know

scully19

0 | 3 hours ago

For sure. Do you think having it televised makes it different. The way they do it now it’s in front of a room full of executives for each team and a reporters of all sorts. Why would they allow this to go on but adding a TV makes it different? It’s all the same shit people just like to believe the world is against them.

DetroitSportsKillMe | Pistons

12 | 3 hours ago

They already post the drawing, just not live

Won’t make a single difference lol

KontraEpsilon

9 | 3 hours ago

I’ve shown so many nutjobs the video and they still have crazy Newsmax levels of denial. You could have them conduct the lottery themselves and they’d still be convinced it’s fixed.

DetroitSportsKillMe | Pistons

13 | 3 hours ago

Pretty sure it’s only high level execs/owners in that room too

Have a hard time believing one of them wouldn’t freak the fuck out if they were cheated out of a franchise altering ping pong ball

jtruth9

6 | 3 hours ago

That’s the thing I don’t hear people talking about. For the draft to be rigged, it would mean cheating the owners of these multi billion dollar franchises. There’s no way he could do it colliding with them. And it doesn’t make sense for The League to do it on it’s own either. The logic just doesn’t track with any critical thought.

DetroitSportsKillMe | Pistons

4 | 3 hours ago

Yeah Ballmer just kinda throws a wrench into the whole thing. The NBA doesn’t even have enough money to pay him off and this is just a pure passion for him. He could go scorched earth on the entire league if he was getting cheated

Dunlocke | Bulls

1 | 3 hours ago

And if they DIDN’T collude, they would be exposing themselves to multi-billion dollar lawsuits and a complete loss of integrity. It’d basically become pro wrestling and lose a huge chunk of its audience.

Kiriegloom | Bulls

2 | 3 hours ago

The 2nd level to the conspiracy is that all the executives meet to discuss which team should get the first pick lol. There’s always another reason why the draft is rigged

Evissi

3 | 2 hours ago

In the scenario of luka to LA for the #1 pick - 29 teams benefit monetarily. Even the team who loses monetarily still gets the #1 pick back. Potentially a 2nd team loses out monetarily long term, because they would have the #1 pick naturally if the rigging didn’t exist.

But overall as a third party observer to a trade like this, it is a positive. These guys don’t need to collude when all they need to do is act in their best immediate interest.

Now, i’m not saying it was rigged, just that the logic absolutely works because revenue sharing exists. If the lakers are the most popular team in the league (for the purposes of this argument lets say they are), it benefits every team monetarily besides the mavericks if luka plays on the lakers instead of the mavericks. It would benefit every owner more to have luka play for them, but that isn’t necessarily on the table because even if they tried to get him there, the other owners would still prefer he goes to the lakers instead.

Would it better for each team to just make good decisions and profit off succeeding? Yes. But how often do you see these companies and billionaires make short term decisions in the name of immediate profit?

Banneduser1112 | West

2 | an hour ago

It’s not just profit share, it’s the immediate franchise valuation bump. THe Lakers sold weeks after the Luka trade at a $10B valuation. Every team owner made a couple of hundred million dollars instantly. Now the league is asking or 8B for expansion teams - that’s a few billion more than they could ask before the Lakers set a record for most expensive franchise in all of pro sports - including the Premier League.

DetroitSportsKillMe | Pistons

0 | 2 hours ago

Ballmer fucks up that entire theory tho

Revenue sharing is irrelavant to him and he’s been trying for 10+ years to make the Clippers on par with the Lakers. No way he’s taking that laying down for 28 other guys to make a buck

KontraEpsilon

1 | 3 hours ago

And that none of them would leak anything.

These aren’t exactly famously quiet people.

malcifer11 | Kings

0 | 2 hours ago

Media members, too. One of our top media guys was in the room this year and he stated with certainty that it cannot possibly be rigged.

Banneduser1112 | West

-1 | an hour ago

They’d freak out if they had proof but they don’t because mixing magnetized powder into ping pong balls doesn’t change their color and turning on an electromagnet is silent.

Do you also think professional wrestling is real?

Ralphredimix_Da_G | Warriors

13 | 4 hours ago

Hahaha there are conspiracy theories about my local bingo hall!! Nobody is safe! I will admit I would love to see a giant machine with 10,000 balls in it swirling around.

Oceanbreeze871

7 | 4 hours ago

Weighted balls! lol

BowserBuddy123 | Heat

3 | 4 hours ago

I’m on that weighted balls train all day.

GfunkWarrior28 | Warriors

3 | 2 hours ago

Dallas with them big cojones

malcifer11 | Kings

2 | 2 hours ago

You can’t selectively toggle a weighted ball during the drawing. If the balls were weighted, none of the other numbers would ever come up.

Banneduser1112 | West

1 | an hour ago

Magnetized powder in the ball my guy

AlThorntonTruther | San Diego Clippers

6 | 3 hours ago

It’s like everyone forgot about the frozen envelope

Wyden_long | Suns

2 | 3 hours ago

We already have the cold envelope theory from like 85

baseketball | Celtics

2 | 3 hours ago

Seems like even non-conspiracists don’t know how the lottery process works. They don’t have 1000 balls with the team logos stamped on them. They have 14 balls and draw 4 balls so they have 1000 possible combinations and each team is pre-assigned a random set of combinations according to their odds.

asetniop | Celtics

1 | 2 hours ago

They should have them roll dice.

TraderJake09 | Bucks

2 | 2 hours ago

Haps on the craps!

awmaleg | Suns

1 | 2 hours ago

Lead Balls! (That was my nickname in college too)

bangwagoner | Supersonics

0 | 3 hours ago

I wish we could stop paying attention to those fucks. It’s like the village idiot screaming at the town square.

nowaygreg | Rockets

78 | 4 hours ago

Interesting idea. It will do nothing to dispel conspiracy theories.

Round_Clock_3942

41 | 4 hours ago

Yeah because the conspiracy theorists have no brains to begin with

SquidlyBopPop

16 | 4 hours ago

I still kinda like the New York Ewing one. I don’t believe it, but if one of them is true it’s that one since it’s the only one that actually benefits the NBA in some way without relying on a massive conspiracy.

Round_Clock_3942

23 | 3 hours ago

The Ewing one is possible because it’s so old and the lottery process itself was so simple and primitive. The process we currently have with 30+ billionaires all with their own resources to catch any wrongdoing - the only way this works is if there’s a board meeting where the NBA decides who gets what pick before the lottery. And every single team is in on it.

SquidlyBopPop

7 | 3 hours ago

Exactly. Like I don’t think they’d take the risk but all it would take is like three dudes to send Ewing to New York, whereas now it would take a small army.

Elephantparrot | NBA

4 | 2 hours ago

The NBA fixing the Ewing lottery seems incredibly far fetched to those that grew up as fans after Jordan came into the league. If all you’ve known is a league with incredible financial success, of course the idea of fixing a lottery is insane.

Those that understand in 1985 the league was only a few years past serious financial peril and still had teams struggling to survive at all have a far easier time picturing the league doing whatever was necessary to get a competitive team in the biggest market. Like imagine today remembering back to 2019 when a team had to have a telethon to beg for donations to meet payroll. That’s where the league was in 1985 (with the Pacers being the team that literally had a telethon to beg for money in the late 70’s).

LakersAreForever | Lakers

1 | an hour ago

Incredibly farfetched lol. Just look for yourself

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/M5qynUiGeL

LakersAreForever | Lakers

0 | an hour ago

That one was clear as day. Watch the video. Dude lays down every envelope carefully, except one.

He throws that one up against the glass wall and bends the corner of it. It’s so obvious.

When stern picks the envelope you can see the corner is bent lol.

bent corner at 45 seconds or so, (first 10 seconds show him placing envelopes in)

But yeah conspiracy theorist are crazy or whatever

trustabro | Heat

1 | 2 hours ago

Not the one about LeBron to Cleveland, or Kyrie to Cleveland, Flagg to Dallas, or Wemby to SA?

SquidlyBopPop

0 | 2 hours ago

No, those are all incredibly stupid.

schooli00 | TOR

0 | 42 minutes ago

You forgot DRose to Chicago (1.7% to hometown team), and Zion to New Orleans (6% to compensate for trading AD to Lakers)

Delanorix | Knicks

7 | 4 hours ago

You know the US government coined the term so they could discredit people actively looking into what the government was up to?

The Tuskegee Experiments and COINTELPRO were once just conspiracies…

Dunlocke | Bulls

0 | 3 hours ago

You know the US government coined the term so they could discredit people actively looking into what the government was up to?

I can’t tell if this is a joke or if you actually believe this. Both are hilarious.

Delanorix | Knicks

4 | 3 hours ago

Its the truth. The government has admitted to it lol

Look up what the CIA did to people around the Warren Report.

Spyk124 | Knicks

3 | 4 hours ago

Yup. They believe every conspiracy theory. There’s ample studies about people who are susceptible to conspiracy theories and what kind of brains they have.

MainFisherman69

0 | 3 hours ago

I typed your exact sentence into the best search papers AI (I’ll do another too just to see).

I’ll report the findings

MainFisherman69

1 | 3 hours ago

the research does not show that conspiracy believers have a single “type of brain” or are inherently unintelligent.

What the literature does show is that certain psychological traits, cognitive styles, and social conditions are statistically associated with stronger susceptibility to conspiracy thinking.

jacob9234

1 | 3 hours ago

The world is run by a group of global elite pedofiles. Conspiracy theorists nailed that one.

7_Constanza | Lakers

1 | an hour ago

NBA is a business at the end of the day, they’re not immune to corruption.There’s hundreds of millions of dollars at stake here, do you really think they always leave things like this to chance?

Round_Clock_3942

3 | an hour ago

Motive isn’t proof.

You need to show how the lottery would be rigged in the presence of executives from multibillion dollar franchises without the owners doing everything to ensure they are not being screwed out of hundred million dollar assets for their businesses.

7_Constanza | Lakers

0 | an hour ago

There’s a multitude of ways to corrupt all those entities you mentioned to get a favourable result

Guilty-Cow4325 | Knicks

0 | 3 hours ago

I don’t know. You say that, but then the whole “evil pedophilic cabal running the world” conspiracy did turn out to be pretty true, so who even knows anymore lol

secretlypooping | 76ers

7 | 3 hours ago

if my team wins - totally valid, I mean it’s an audited system of checks and balances in a game of chance, we just got lucky and you’re being a sore loser

If my team loses - fucking Adam silver rigged this because he hates my team, it’s too easy to manipulate these things

AlabasterRadio | Celtics

4 | 3 hours ago

The idea that it can’t be fixed just because it’s on live TV is silly.

schooli00 | TOR

2 | 3 hours ago

As if magic tricks/illusions with live audiences never existed

ATLSlutStretcher

2 | 3 hours ago

The idea that it can’t be fixed just because it’s on live TV is silly.

Ok, assuming you’ve watched the drawing videos from the current system (that’s giving you way too much credit, I know) - if it was rigged, how do you think they did it?

Banneduser1112 | West

1 | an hour ago

Magnetized powder in the plastic of the balls. Electromagnet in the lottery machine. This is trivial to pull off and completely undetectable to a viewer.

KGBeast420 | NBA

1 | an hour ago

The lottery machine is entirely made of clear plastic. Where is the electromagnet hidden here?

Banneduser1112 | West

2 | 38 minutes ago

clear plastic

The podium my guy

ATLSlutStretcher

0 | an hour ago

and completely undetectable to a viewer.

Yeah man, nobody is going to notice that one ping-pong ball is completely violating the laws of physics.

Banneduser1112 | West

1 | 31 minutes ago

How do you figure it would violate physics?

New-Vegetable-8494 | Raptors

1 | 8 minutes ago

I’m not saying it’s rigged BUT i’m astounded by the “people” on here who are 100% certain it’s buletproof.

billionaires running a huge business would never lie bro. never.

scenenotemo92 | Nuggets

55 | 4 hours ago

bring back frozen envelopes

TraderJake09 | Bucks

7 | 4 hours ago

Patrick Ewing likes this

foshiiy | Rockets

2 | 3 hours ago

And coin flips! (please im begging you we need The Dream 2.0)

ttrree4455 | Knicks

19 | 4 hours ago

I think they underestimate our ability to come up with wild conspiracy theories.

BowserBuddy123 | Heat

3 | 4 hours ago

It’s a failure of their imagination really.

Li0nsFTW | Thunder

3 | 3 hours ago

“THAT TURN THE FRIGGIN FROGS GAY!”

YodaForceGhost | Nets

20 | 4 hours ago

NHL does this now and I think it’s great

Dangeroustrend

9 | 3 hours ago

NHL doesn’t really have theatrics like nba does tho

TraderJake09 | Bucks

3 | 2 hours ago

It wouldn’t take much to improve the current NBA lottery show

LHamiltonPP | Pelicans

20 | 4 hours ago

Very cute they think conspiracy theorists will change their thinking when presented with evidence

fluentuk

5 | 3 hours ago

More likely they can sell ad space for the conspiracy theory crowd

thy_armageddon | Knicks

12 | 4 hours ago

Adam Silver gotta be the worst commissioner when it comes to just like, handling basic tasks. Just over-involved nonsense, constantly trying to prove something. Big “Pick Me” energy from the alien freak.

BroJackson_ | Spurs

8 | 3 hours ago

The lottery is already done in front of team execs and media from each lottery city, and none of them think it’s rigged against them - and it’s THEIR pocketbooks that would take the hit.

You think televising it to us jackasses is gonna suddenly make everyone rational thinkers?

NBA conspiracy theorists are the worst.

nullstellensatz1

4 | 3 hours ago

It’s also televised. You can look up the drawing right now on NBA.com

Banneduser1112 | West

2 | an hour ago

Let me get this straight - nobody whose entire livelihood is dependent on the viability of the product will say anything in public to harm that product - and you think that is evidence in your favor?

Proven draft rigging would immediately cut the value of every team in half. Alleged probably cuts 10%. Meanwhile, the Luka/Cooper trade allowed the Lakers to sell for $10B - so every owner made an immediate 20% on their valuation.

BroJackson_ | Spurs

1 | an hour ago

I think the sheer number of people who would have to be involved in it - team officials, media, referees, players, etc - without a single leak is mind boggling. You think the media members that sit in the lottery live wouldn’t LOVE to break the biggest story in sports history? You think Ernst and Young, who audits the draft, is going to risk their company and entire reputation to help them pull the strings? The NBA isn’t even their biggest client.

With the Luka deal, nobody wants to answer this question - the Mavericks missed the play-in by one (1) game. If they make the play-in, they’re not in the lottery at all. The Luka deal was made in February. Kyrie got injured on March 3. They went 8-14 after that. If they go 9-13, they don’t even have a shot at Cooper. How was it orchestrated so perfectly to get the exact record they needed? Is Kyrie in on it? Why not just lose them all and guarantee it?

And people scream conspiracy after every draft - Rose to Chicago, Lebron to Cleveland, Zion to NO, Wemby to SA, Kyrie to Cleveland, Cooper to Dallas. Are they all rigged?

I absolutely agree that there are plenty of individuals that can go rogue - Donaghy, Porter, etc. But to think there’s a top-down conspiracy is just delusional.

People just want to justify terrible work by making them a mastermind. Nico Harrison had Steph Curry come into his office - one of the biggest stars in the world at the time - and he called him Seth. And now we’re supposed to believe this guy is helping pull the strings of a massive conspiracy.

Sometimes the refs just suck and miss calls.

Some guys just suck and a conspiracy gives them an out.

One (1) leak and the whole thing crumbles. The league would risk billions upon billions to make millions. It doesn’t make any sense.

Sometimes stuff just happens.

Banneduser1112 | West

1 | 40 minutes ago

the sheer number of people who would have to be involved in it

Wait why do you think it has to be more than a handful? People can’t see magnetism and you can mix magnetized powder into a plastic without changing the color. You can do this with a handful of people - hell all you need is two. Silver and the guy to rig the balls and the machine.

Ernst and Young and the other observers don’t have to know. Hell they help sell the grift because they buy it. Also, nobody really wants to look hard at this - all the owners made 20% on the value of their team when the Lakers sold after the Luka trade, Wemby dynasty sells European expansion, etc. Even the media guys don’t really want to report something that destroys the league - Pablo Torre maybe but the guys in that room aren’t trying to kill their entire livelihood any more than the league execs are.

BroJackson_ | Spurs

1 | 23 minutes ago

People can’t see magnetism and you can mix magnetized powder into a plastic without changing the color. You can do this with a handful of people - hell all you need is two. Silver and the guy to rig the balls and the machine.

The lottery isn’t decided with a ball and with a team logo. You can’t just magnetize that ball. There are 14 balls in a machine - numbered 1-14. Those balls are never removed. Teams are assigned a combination of four of the numbers, and they more combinations the higher their lottery odds.

There are 1001 possible combinations. Are just four magnetized? Cause those are in other combinations for other teams, also. Are they shutting on and off magnetized power? It’s far more believable that a team with a 2% chance gets it than rigging the system.

Wemby was selling in any city. The Spurs don’t have some magic potion for big men, they’d just gotten two of the better ones over almost four decades.

We’re both going to believe, or not believe, what we want. It’s just way too far-fetched for me, and in my opinion, falls apart at a ton of different places.

Banneduser1112 | West

1 | 11 minutes ago

Are the 1001 combinations published anywhere?

Anecdotal but Zach Lowe reported after the 2025 lottery that the Mavs representative told the rep sitting next to him what the final number would be.

As far as my bias and seeing what I want to see - its a fair point. I will always default to thinking people will do what profits them the most unless there’s a strong 3rd party regulator to ensure they follow rules. Luka for Cooper meant the Lakers got an 10B valuation - 20% jump to all the team values, plus higher asks for the expansion franchises. Wemby on Europe’s fave team + lottery picks right as the NBA is trying to expand into Europe. Plus they saved the franchise in the 4th largest market when Philly jumped. Lebron to Cleveland = instant golden boy. AD to NO saves that franchise.

For the record, I don’t think every lottery is rigged - just the generational talents.

Not for nothing but the new system is even more riggable with magnetized balls :)

LakersAreForever | Lakers

2 | an hour ago

Brother they make money through revenue sharing regardless of how empty their stadiums are

BroJackson_ | Spurs

0 | an hour ago

And yet they’ll make more if they have a championship team. And some simply just want to win also.

The sheer number of people who would have to be involved, and the number of variables that would have to fall into place is wild to even consider it as a possibility.

LakersAreForever | Lakers

3 | an hour ago

There’s 30 teams and 1 champion. Even if a different team wins every year it would take 30 years for every team to win ONE championship.

They don’t care about that for money purposes bro bro. There’s only so many star players and like I said they’re making money whether they are OKC or Brooklyn Nets.

Revenue sharing means your money is my money and my money is my money

stridered | Suns

1 | 3 hours ago

It’s just another way they can insert ads into the broadcast and sell them.

BroJackson_ | Spurs

2 | 3 hours ago

That’s fine and they can do that. Same with stretching the NFL draft to three days. But people are still gonna bitch.

Rrypl | Celtics

7 | 4 hours ago

“THEY FROZE THE BALLS, JERRY!”

taskmetro

1 | 3 hours ago

JERRY!

CrossoverCadence

7 | 4 hours ago

It’s already on YouTube with plenty journalists and multiple reps from each team in the room. If people still believe the conspiracies now, they always will imo

NatalChaos

5 | 4 hours ago

Thank you NHL.

Troll_Enthusiast | Wizards

1 | 2 hours ago

Just make the odds like the NHL

Bonzi777 | Wizards

3 | 4 hours ago

It’s cute that they think it’ll alleviate conspiracy theories

TheStrongTaint

2 | 4 hours ago

Nothing will stop conspiracy theorists. They just move the goal posts

Round_Clock_3942

2 | 4 hours ago

“My team got screwed by the lottery balls!!!! It’s a league wide conspiracy and my team’s owner is in on it”

Banneduser1112 | West

0 | an hour ago

Magnetized poweder in the plastic of the balls and an electromagnet. No moving goal posts here my guy.

I’m honestly confused how you people can look at the results and think otherwise (Wemby to his favorite team along with 2 other lottery jumps just as the NBA is trying to expand into Europe, Luka given away to LA just before the team sells for a record amount, Lebron to Cleveland, Cleveland lottery wins after he leaves…).

Do you believe that pro wrestling is real?

EDIT: Comments deleted here, astroturfing.

TheStrongTaint

1 | an hour ago

Found one

Zack_of_Steel | Thunder

3 | 2 hours ago

They can afford to do this now that Flagg’s in Dallas and the Spurs are relevant again.

imnotknox | Lakers

3 | 2 hours ago

i imagine some suit saying we can totally monetize this absolutely boring as fuck 30 minutes into tv with 4 commentators

SmokedGoooda

2 | 3 hours ago

They just now see how the NHL does it?

Toxik916 | Kings

2 | 3 hours ago

Just do it like the NHL does it.

IndyPoker979 | Pacers

2 | 3 hours ago

First off, the combinations for teams should be randomized, not worst team has 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-5, etc.

In a world of computers, it wouldn’t take 10 seconds to do so, and it would “shuffle” the odds better.

Secondly, if they did 16th, 15th, etc. All they need to do is give the 16th, 15th and 14th the oodds they currently give, 14%. Just flip the draft odds and now you have the ability to do it live.

Finally, imagine a scenario where the draft is live, the pick is in, and in a WWE style, your teams representative suddenly appears behind the curtain. It could be an incredible event.

Hovi_Bryant | Pistons

2 | 3 hours ago

Conspiracy theories will continue to exist even no matter what. I just love the “magnet ball” conspiracy. Truly some low IQ shit.

Murky_Persimmon9289 | Thunder

1 | an hour ago

As if giving the 9th best odds a 1% chance at number 1 even makes the lottery more fair or does anything to fix tanking. Even having the possibility of shit like that just invites it

Banneduser1112 | West

1 | an hour ago

How so

Hovi_Bryant | Pistons

1 | 22 minutes ago

People will choose to believe what they want regardless of what’s in front of them. “Fake news” for instance.

Banneduser1112 | West

1 | 7 minutes ago

No I mean why do you say magnetized balls are low IQ shit?

Also aren’t you invested in seeing the lottery as not rigged? Why do you exclude yourself from the “believing what they want regardless”?

Knowledge_Haver_17

1 | 4 hours ago

Such a no brainer

Dear_Profile_5251

1 | 4 hours ago

Is his secret room the snack room?

Minimum_Island3493

1 | 4 hours ago

Yeah bc a live TV production can’t be rigged

DisMeDog

1 | 4 hours ago

Nobody gives a shit about the nba draft as a spectator event. I truly hate Adam Silver. Worst commissioner in professional sports.

Delanorix | Knicks

1 | 4 hours ago

How would a live event prove some balls arent weighed more than others?

Edit: i forgot you cant joke on the internet

ATLSlutStretcher

2 | 3 hours ago

Have you ever seen the machine that selects the balls? How do you think it would work, using weighted balls?

tore_a_bore_a | Warriors

1 | 3 hours ago

Gonna need a lottery pre show where each team’s balls are weighed

Rapper_Laugh | Bucks

1 | 3 hours ago

There’s already more than ample proof it’s not rigged

IntelligentAd5460 | Grizzlies

1 | 4 hours ago

getting to see a team executive know his job is gone live on camera will make for great tv

Ralphredimix_Da_G | Warriors

1 | 4 hours ago

Each team picks a baby to race to the finish from a giant playpen of babies..

motherseffinjones | Raptors

1 | 3 hours ago

While I’d like to see this, if this is trying to stop conspiracies it will fail and might even make it worse

SlicksterRick

1 | 3 hours ago

I didn’t think about using the last ball to determine draft order going in reverse, that’s clever. It’d make sure #1 pick is revealed last

chiguy2387 | Bulls

1 | 3 hours ago

The purposed idea is that instead of 14 balls and four-number combinations determining who wins the lottery, now each team will have a set number of balls in the hopper and they will draw balls until a team has all their balls drawn, eliminating them from contention for the first pick and continuing until one team remains.

Ralphredimix_Da_G | Warriors

1 | 3 hours ago

It’s so obvious guys cmon. This year Silver wanted Washington to rebuild with a stud. Last year was the Dallas Nico stimulus package. 2024 Silver wanted to make sure that bust goes someplace with no national TV games. 2023 so obvious San Antonio gets the international star as Pop is retiring. Put it on TV won’t change anything.

ElGranQuesoRojo | Mavericks

1 | 3 hours ago

lol “potential for tremendous theater” sounds like corpo douche speak.

JamesHar_en | Knicks

1 | 3 hours ago

Showing the actual lottery balls is lowkey electric. The NHL did it this year with the leafs and it was fire

ATLSlutStretcher

1 | 3 hours ago

The NBA literally puts the lottery ball drawing on YouTube and nobody watches it.

HokageEzio | Knicks

1 | 3 hours ago

Because it’s uploaded after we know the results.

ATLSlutStretcher

1 | 3 hours ago

…because the process selects the #1OA first and would make for terrible television.

HokageEzio | Knicks

1 | 2 hours ago

The current process, yes. They’re speculating the idea of going in reverse order elimination style.

ATLSlutStretcher

1 | 2 hours ago

So the argument you’re making here is that we can potentially lower the number of conspiracy theories by using a less random lottery system than the one we use now, already record and upload, and that somehow that will appease the conspiracy theorists who don’t understand the system or watch the videos we have now in the first place?

Ok pal.

HokageEzio | Knicks

1 | 2 hours ago

No, the point was that it would be highly entertaining theater. The lottery uploaded on Youtube isn’t entertaining because we already know who won.

D3struct_oh | Rockets

1 | 3 hours ago

Somehow Shams will still leak everything 2 hours prior.

Dishavingfun | GSW

1 | 3 hours ago

NHL effect?

LarBrd33

1 | 3 hours ago

The way they have been doing the lotto would make for really boring tv given they start with pick #1 and draw a 4 digit code associated with the team. And then if that team comes up again they have to redraw. It’s dull.

But if it’s literally balls with logos on it and going backwards, it’ll be similar to the old school drawing of envelopes and a lot more fun to watch.

Chris3894 | NBA

1 | 3 hours ago

When I think of events that have the potential for tremendous theater, watching the NBA draft lottery process is for sure near the top of my list!!

inherendo

1 | 3 hours ago

Is there legal implications with the lottery like how a state lottery or game shows are regulated? The auditor and third party witnesses are present when they pull the balls right. Slightly more likely than election fraud but not by much.

Banneduser1112 | West

1 | an hour ago

There are no legal implications or regulations governing this unless someone rigging the system were to gamble on it in a regulated sports book.

AccomplishedRainbow1 | Suns

1 | 3 hours ago

Don’t they always post the lottery draw video after the fact?

Xray_Mind | Suns

1 | 3 hours ago

They should do a choice based lottery with owner.

Step 1) computer randomly selects the draft lottery order 1-14 picks

Step 2) 14 teams can vote yes to lock in their spot or to respin their slot. Teams that vote yes are locked into that pick. Teams can choose to respin their pick up to three times before locking in. (Adds drama and runs risk of pulling a worse spot.

Step 3) chaos ensues. And entertainment is had while eliminating the chance at rigged drafts since now human decision comes into play

Rusty-Shackleford23 | Kings

1 | 3 hours ago

NHL does something similar and it’s fun

ATLSlutStretcher

1 | 3 hours ago

The only people who believe the current NBA lottery is rigged are people who genuinely have no idea that the actual drawing is done in a room full of representatives from every team, accountants, on camera. Televising the event is not going to make them watch it, the same way they refuse to watch the video of the drawings now.

lawsnoosoo | Bulls

1 | 3 hours ago

lol this is going to buoy conspiracy theories. An entire long drawing for 16 teams? Such a high volume of air time for the most schizophrenic of us to attribute any and every meaningless speck of detail as proof of rigging

Aidanj927 | Spurs

1 | 3 hours ago

I was watching the NHL one and everyone was still calling it rigged

mzp3256

1 | 2 hours ago

The NHL broadcasts the lottery drawing live and it doesn’t prevent conspiracy theories

FadeRunna | 76ers

1 | 2 hours ago

One of the first NBA conspiracies I read about online was the televised NBA Draft lottery being rigged when the Knicks won the right to draft Ewing.

If I remember correctly, the conspiracy was that the envelope picked by Stern was frozen.

joshuads | Bucks

1 | an hour ago

The potential for tremendous theater.

You have to be an absolute sports psycho to want to watch that.

They should still do it, but man I cannot imagine many more boring things to watch

FightScene

1 | 5 minutes ago

I don’t even watch the lottery results which only takes a few minutes. Why would anyone want to see the whole lottery process which might be dragged out over an hour or more?

Then again, I don’t watch the draft either. Plenty of people are willing to watch three hours of reading out names.

PlasticSprinkles4677

1 | an hour ago

The audience members? AI generated

CrossfitJebus

1 | an hour ago

Just like bill said it should be

OptimismEnjoyer | Canada

1 | 30 minutes ago

Worked pretty well for the NHL. They show everything from the balls being put into the machine to the drawing to the nerds calculating odds and stuff.

You’re still gonna get people who yell rigged, but at least they’re easily dismissed now.

AdLatter3755

1 | 15 minutes ago

Honestly just do away with the draft and operate more like international football/ Soccer.

Famous-Protection809

0 | 4 hours ago

Lol. They must think we’re all idiots. Not 50%…All 100% of the fans are stupid.

GauthZuOGZ | Mavericks

3 | 4 hours ago

If you think the lottery is rigged then yes, you’re an idiot

MetaMetagross

2 | 3 hours ago

it was certainly a coincidence that the Mavs got the #1 pick right after trading Luka. Or the Cavs got the #1 pick 3 out of 4 years right after LeBron left.

Famous-Protection809

2 | 3 hours ago

It’s like some people will eat shit because someone told them it’s a gourmet burger

Rapper_Laugh | Bucks

1 | 3 hours ago

Correct, that’s how statistics works

Famous-Protection809

0 | 4 hours ago

If you think the lottery isn’t rigged then yes, you’re an idiot

Rapper_Laugh | Bucks

1 | 3 hours ago

You can look into it for literally ten minutes and realize that it isn’t. This is conspiratorial and anti-evidential thinking, which yes, is idiotic.

Famous-Protection809

1 | 3 hours ago

Shaq and a few other players already spoke about David Stern asking them where they wanted to play and that team ended up with the #1 pick. But sure. Draft not rigged and sports betting doesn’t affect the integrity of the game. One in the same

Rapper_Laugh | Bucks

2 | 2 hours ago

Never said that last thing.

Please explain to me how the process could possibly be rigged given that execs from every team would need to be personally involved.

These kinds of views are entirely nonsensical and you deserve to be mocked for holding them.

Banneduser1112 | West

1 | an hour ago

First off - you act like people can see magnetism. You can televise this all you want it doesn’t change the fact that you can mix magnetized powder into the plastic the ball is made from and flip an electro magnet and have the balls do whatever you want.

Second off - you act like league execs and owners don’t make a LOT of money off of status quo. Luka goes to LA for nothing (but Mavs get Coop) and the Lakers sell for 10B dollars - record value for a sports team. At that moment every franchise was worth 20% more. Now the NBA is asking for 8B for expansion franchises. That’s 20% more than they could have asked before, so roughly 3.2 billion split 30 ways.

Take Wemby and the Spurs “luck.” That happens at the exact moment that the league is trying to expand into Europe.

So the owners are profiting from rigging. Every team exec’s entire livelihood is dependent on keeping an owner happy. Would you give up you entire livelihood and career just to make an allegation you can’t prove? Of course not.

There’s nothing unreasonable or crazy about this idea - you just have to look at the results. Last year’s lottery gave the league a 10B valuation, gave the face of the league a dynasty just as their trying to expand into Europe, and saved the league’s 4th largest market (Sixers would’ve lost their pick if they didn’t move up).

NocSenpai | Lakers

0 | 4 hours ago

Flat earthers are still prevalent with all the evidence out there so this will probably do nothing in that regard.

Imaginary-Role8790 | Lakers

0 | 4 hours ago

Hot ball vs fresh ball it’s a classic

illegallaw

0 | 3 hours ago

Lottery balls are funny too. You can still control the number results its been tested.

karma6063 | 76ers

0 | 3 hours ago

so jewish Squidward REALLY wants this league to become a WWE-tier product, huh?

Dangerous_Ad5039

0 | 3 hours ago

NBA is in such a bad place where the fans think every part of the game is rigged and the league keeps responding to it adding more fuel to the fire.

I_Set_3_Alarms | Celtics

0 | 3 hours ago

I mean this just leads to an easy conspiracy theory:

It’s been rigged every year up to now, but now they’re not going to since the odds will be so high for everyone

ThrowRa-zucchinizzc

0 | 3 hours ago

The winning balls definitely have something going on. Whether that’s magnets, extra weight, electromagnetism, shifting ink, AI, etc

Rapper_Laugh | Bucks

1 | 3 hours ago

Absolute nonsense right here

[Bontemps] While ESPN’s Brian Windhorst wrote about the “secret” room, sources expect the lottery itself – not just airing of the results – to become a live, televised event. No more conspiracy theories. All of it happening in real time. The potential for tremendous theater.