Monday evening the [Dallas Mavericks](https://www.mavsmoneyball.com) made a historical jump in the NBA Lottery, moving from 11th to 1st where they will reportedly draft Cooper Flagg. I asked the staff to respond and react to the move and challenged them to stay under 100 words. Some folks ignored me, which is acceptable given how monumental this is. Here’s what we all had to say:
**Jordan**: When they jumped to the top 4, I gasped so loud my wife ran from the other room, assuming I just found out something catastrophic had happened. When they got the first pick, I ran through the house carrying my four-year-old daughter, forcing her to sing “the NBA is rigged!” The front office doesn’t deserve joy, but it was nice for Mavs fans to feel some tonight. No one can be mad at us.
**Tyler**: I compared it to how stunned I was when I saw the news of the Luka trade. It was that level of shock. Obviously, this is an excited shock instead of the immediate sadness, but I just didn’t believe this was a possibility. Nobody deserved this more than Dallas Mavericks fans, so I’m thrilled for that part of it. Who cares if it was rigged, they can’t go back and undo it now! We did it.
**Matt**: In the franchise’s history, the team has never moved UP in the NBA lottery; something nearly as unlikely as what happened Monday night when they turned a 1.8% chance into an opportunity to draft Cooper Flagg. A franchise that was staring down a decade-long-plus rebuild has been saved via an unfathomable deus ex machina when things seemed to be as dire as it could get. Now there’s just the matter of whether the league’s worst GM, backed into a corner, has the good sense not to blow up the team’s future for the second time in the span of 6 months.
**Clint**: I may be back in.
**Sudarshan**: Elated. This might genuinely be the greatest wake-up call that I might have. Ever.
This might be a conspiracy. It might not. Right now, though, I don’t care because my franchise has some life again and a future to potentially look forward to.
**Matt M.**: I had to laugh at the pure ridiculousness of what it took to get us to this place. It’s no consolation for my sports loss but I am at least interested in what this stupid team is doing again all of a sudden. We’re so back, baby?
**Josh**: This is the inside baseball response but it’s the truth: my first immediate thought when I saw the Mavericks logo come out of that envelope was “oh thank god, our website and podcast are saved.” Needless to say the Luka trade had a ton of ramifications, and one is that independent Mavs media all took a collective hit in the shorts for our bottom line. Our numbers across the website and podcast we’re downright _bleak_ starting in March, once the anger and rage of the Luka trade had died down a bit and there wasn’t much left but apathy. There was a brief boost for Luka’s return game in Dallas, but it was fleeting.
Regardless of what happens with this pick (whether it’s Flagg, another player, or a massive trade), this result gives our community a boost. There’s stuff to actually talk about now that doesn’t revolve around firing Nico or Mavericks ticket sales or TV ratings. We can actually talk about...basketball. A nice change of pace after the last three or so hell months we’ve all had to endure. I hope the Mavericks draft Flagg, if only because he seems really good and he’s really young and I’d love to talk about how the puzzle pieces fit going forward. That’s why I still do this! That’s the part I like. Talking about all the other stuff sucks. This is better.
**David**: Yesterday, my dad told me at Mother’s Day lunch that, based on his 12 month economic projection, we would not be able to renew our Mavericks season tickets (which he has had for 41 years) after next season because the demand would be too low and he cannot afford 12 games or more a year. I told him at the restaurant that there is no need to project a year out, and anything can happen. “We’ll figure it out, it’s not worth worrying about” was the sentiment I gave him. Giving up something you have worked 41 years to obtain is not worth a couple of years of uncertainty and possible sunk costs. Well, a day later, there are no doubts about retaining our season tickets. I imagine there will be a surplus of people looking to buy into our syndicate.
**Michael**: I had almost no emotional response whatsoever in the moment. While I stopped short of outright declaring the #1 pick as a certainty for the Mavs, I had convinced myself days ago that the possibility was somehow much more real than 1.8% would indicate. The complete and utter insanity of this season gave me an irrational sense that this of course, would happen.
Happiness very rapidly set in from there. The Mavs had done two things they had never before done - moved up in the Draft and secured the #1 pick, arguably when we needed it the very most. It really happened! Then thoughts started sprouting. Would they trade the pick? Did our window of opportunity somehow just get longer than it even was back in January because we had the next (18-year-old!) face of the franchise? When will people start saying the whole thing was rigged (I don’t believe it was, although if this isn’t the modern-day frozen envelope, I don’t know what is)? I remembered what it was like to talk about something other than the Doncic trade and it felt great! “What are the chances,” I thought. Apparently, somehow greater than 1.8%!
**Brent**: By some dumb luck, you went from having no retirement to winning an extremely valuable and fragile nest egg. A relic of the past, a piece of fine art, a McGuffin straight out of Alfred Hitchcock’s how-to-build-a-plot handbook. You’ll be set if you can only get that precious thing to the auction house. Your first choice for a courier should not be the Joker. Fire Nico.
**Kirk**: It was a weird feeling. I never actually considered that Dallas could win the draft lottery. They never had so why would yesterday be the day? But they did, it’s wonderful. Can’t wait.
**Gracie**: When it was revealed that Portland was selecting 11th, I jumped out of my seat with pure excitement, because this meant it finally happened. The Mavericks finally moved up in the lottery. At this point, I thought, “Alright, we are getting 4 because there is just no way.” and then it happened. The Mavericks landed the #1 pick. I was so excited I could have cried. After everything this fanbase has been through in the last four months, we truly deserve this. This felt hopeless, and finally, we have something to get excited about.