Mavericks fans loved chubby, no-defense, great-shooting Luka. They were threatening boycotts down there.
The suspicion here is that there were big meetings in the NBA offices in New York that presumably went like this:
Boss: “We have to get that first pick to Dallas so they can draft Cooper Flagg, that wholesome young giant from Duke, and get the fans to shut up about Luka.”
Assistant: “Ah, boss, Dallas only has a 1.8 percent statistical chance to win the lottery. Yes, we have enough dummies in the country that they’re now calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America — especially down there in Texas — but no one is going to believe the Mavericks winning the lottery is on the up-and-up."
Boss: “This thing we have now, AI, we can make it look as real as the president of the U.S. making a great golf swing.”