After witnessing the ping pong ball drawing firsthand, an NBA writer explained why rigging the NBA Draft Lottery is impossible.
NBA fans all around the world went berserk when, with an incredible 1.8% odds, the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Draft Lottery and claimed the first pick in the upcoming draft.
3-pointers this season
Dallas Mavericks
NBA
After the season the Mavs had, with the Luka Doncic trade and all the other drama that the team faced, it seemed too good to be true that they received the first overall pick, but one sports writer who witnessed the drawing firsthand neglected all the speculations that the lottery might've been rigged.
"It is impossible to rig the NBA Draft Lottery," Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated said on The Ryen Russillo Podcast.
"The NBA goes to such great pains to ensure that there is no appearance of impropriety. The guy that's telling the ping pong ball selector when to draw from the bucket has his back turned to the whole proceeding," he revealed.
"He is standing there with his back to the drawing and has a stopwatch in his hand, and every 10 seconds he will raise his hand, and that's when a ball is drawn," Mannix explained the proceeding.
Mannix is sure there's nothing to be suspect about, and it would take an extraordinary ability to be able to rig the lottery.
"It would take a Houdini-esque act to be able to rig the NBA Draft Lottery," he stated. "There's nothing suspect about what the lottery is."
After the lottery, now there's a lot of speculation about the future of the league. There's no doubt that the Mavs will keep their pick to draft Cooper Flagg, while other teams like the San Antonio Spurs, who jumped in the lottery, are predicted to be in a hunt to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo this offseason, potentially changing the whole landscape of the NBA.
You can also check out the other stories on how good the future number one pick Cooper Flagg is and the Spurs emerging as the favorites to acquire Giannis:
How good is Cooper Flagg really? Analyzing the generational talent
Spurs emerge as the favorites to trade for Giannis after NBA Draft Lottery?
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