T-Wolves president insinuates draft lottery is rigged

I think the three that are the most suspect are the Ewing draft (1985), the Webber draft (1993) and the James draft (2003?).

Why not put James in NYC? Because he was 18. Do you think it was in the league's best interest to send James to a place where they might eat him alive or put him in his hometown where people have been following his career since he was in junior high?

 

Am I mistaken or did they not have teh weighted draft lottery system until AFTER the 1985 lottery? I thought the 85 lottery was one of the reasons why they went to the weighted system. Didn't they just put one envelope for each lottery team into the hopper and have them pulled in front of everyone (hence the bent corner on the Knicks' envelope)?

 

The difference about 1985 was that the best of the worst teams could get the no. 1 pick and the worst of the worst teams that year could get the No. 7 pick. That's exactly what happened when the Warriors drew No. 7. Granted, they didn't do too badly in that draft...

I think they changed it soon afterwards so the worst team couldn't get that completely screwed.

 

I like the Cavs' second second-round pick...oh, and the Knicks didn't do too bad at 47 (Gerald Wilkins). Houston at 54 with Sam Mitchell and Atlanta at 84 (4th round) with John Battle didn't do too bad, either. I like the Hawks drafting Bob Ferry Jr. in the seventh round...must have been some kind of favor or something. Mr. Irrelevant that year? Chris Remley from Rutgers selected by the Boston Celtics.

I kind of miss seven-round NBA drafts...great to see teams struggling to find someone to pick. Bill Needle, who was the Cavaliers media relations director back in the early 1980's, was alone in the team's draft room in 1980 with the phone hookup to the league still active. When the Cavs turn in the 9th round came around there was no one there to make the pick, so Needle thumbed through the draft guide to see what caught his eye. He settled on 6-5 guard Melvin Crafter from Central State. So he made the pick.

When training camp rolled around he went to seek out Crafter to let him know he had a hand in the team drafting him. Crafter's response? "Why so late?" The media relations guy picked him on a whim and Crafter wanted to know why he didn't go higher in the draft. He was cut shortly after camp opened...

This story is from the Joe Menzer/Bert Graeff book "The Cavs from Fitch to Fratello." A hilarious book about a completely inept organization, especially during the Ted Stepien years. Good luck finding it, though.

 

Heck, in the 1950s, NFL teams had 30 player drafts, and picked players out of Street & Smith's.

It's a lot better for NBA players to not get drafted if they aren't picked in the first round. Then they can choose the best place for them to try out.

 

And it wasn't just that game in that 99 Knicks/Pacers series, I believe Game 6 was even more bizarrely officiated, it just didn't have that signature example play everyone remembers like LJ's shot from Game 3. That whole series just had a suspicious stench emanating from it. It's is one of about five cases where I'm kinda inclined to buy into NBA conspiracy theories. The others being:

--2002 Kings/Lakers, Game 6. And not because Tim Donaghy says so. But because ....well, holy fuck, just re-watch it. I find it extremely hard to believe all those horrendous calls could've been just good faith mistakes. As bizarrely officiated a game in any pro sport as I've ever seen.

--2006 Heat/Mavs Finals, Games 3-5. Cuban's Mavs roll to easy blowouts first two games, appear headed toward likely sweep, when the way the series was officiated suddenly and so OBVIOUSLY changes from Game 3 onward with a "henceforth nobody shall so much as breathe on D-Wade" rule now in effect. Wade simply was not allowed to fail on drives from Game 3 onward, if he hit the shot he got the field goal, if he missed he got the call ...every fricking time, regardless of degree of contact. A few of the phantom calls he got in that series were just comical. I don't believe that was just coincidence, I think somebody from the League at least talked to the officials before Game 3 about "adjusting" the way the series was being officated.

--85 Lottery. As noted in earlier post, just way too much suspicious smoke floating around that one.

--Jordan 93-95 retirement. Don't know if the gambling suspension story is true, but I don't believe the story we were told is the whole one. There's got to be plenty more to that than we were told.

 

The Pacers beat the Knicks in the ECF the next year anyway.

Though in a new arena. Just like the Lakers, who they faced in the Finals.

HMMMMMM.

 

I covered Games No. 3 through 7 in the Kings-Lakers series that year. There's no way something wasn't up in Game 6 and there were two other games that to say they were pretty questionable is an understatement. There were several writers who had covered the NBA for decades who said they had never seen anything even remotely like that game.

I wonder if we'll ever know the true story behind Jordan's first "retirement"

I remember Stern being interviewed and saying he had no idea it was coming and thinking he was lying his ass off.

 

I remember in 2004 how Miami fans were complaining about Wade being fouled and never getting the calls against the Pistons in the ECF. Then when Wade got "hurt," people said that was why Detroit won. Puhlease.

 

Pro sports is theater, with a high-dollar ticket/consumption price.
As I've said before, I believe there is a chance that some of the outcomes are predetermined.

 

Every time I see that Kia commercial with Blake Griffin dunking over the car, I am reminded of how surely this years's dunk contest was fixed—at least to the point that Griffin could progress to the second round and do his car dunk. In my opinion Serge Ibaka, who dunked from beyond the foul line in the opening rounds, was just plain screwed out of a finals spot. (I also would believe Rudy Fernandez was jobbed a couple years ago to set up the Nate Robinson-Dwight Howard showdown in Gatorade-colored gear). And it's only the dunk contest, of course, but it leads you to wonder, if they will fix that, what else will they tinker with?

 

82games.com did an excellent breakdown of the Game 6 between the Kings/Lakers a few years ago. It shows that, while Dick Bavetta (big surprise!) made some questionable calls in the Lakers favor, this notion that "THE NBA STOLE THE GAME FROM THE KINGS!" doesn't quite hold up.

http://www.82games.com/lakerskingsgame6.htm

I still feel the Lakers 3-peat benefited far more from playing two teams (Portland and Sac) in the West Conf. Finals who made quitting and choking an art, regardless of who they were playing, than it did the referees.