The NBA's worst nightmare

If Stern ever starts using the McMahon strut when he gets to games you might be on to something.

 

Don't forget, Tim Duncan to the Spurs. But your post did remind me, I believe the NBA draft lottery is tomorrow night. I think I saw it in the TV listings.

 

Duncan to the Spurs ensured that with David Robinson they would have one of the best franchises around and Stern loved (why wouldn't he?) the Admiral...

I thought the same thing when Seattle and Portland got the 1-2 picks and Oden and Durant last year. Instant rivalry, in a place where they could use a little more interest.

There's no reason to fix it every year. But in the last 23 years, I would guess that 7-8 of them have been fixed. Ewing, Shaq, Duncan, Webber, James, Oden... There's no reason to do it unless someone truly special is available. In other years you can throw one to the Kings, Bucks (twice), Nets, Raptors etc...

I highly suggest someone watch the Youtube footbage of the 1985 lottery when the guy appears to be clearly looking for a specific envelope.

I am the first to admit I am a conspiracy theorist when it comes to the NBA...

 

But Stern's also accused of doing everything in his power to make sure that Seattle doesn't have basketball. So if he fixed last year's lottery, he's apparently getting his conspiracies mixed up.

 

Why on earth would Stern have fixed it for Duncan to go to the Spurs, a small-market team that already had David Robinson, instead of sending him to Boston to revive the league's most storied franchise, which, by the way, had the most ping pong balls that year? Just because things work out perfectly sometimes, like Ewing to NY or LeBron to Cleveland or this year maybe a Boston-LA final, doesn't mean it was orchestrated.

Refs can be biased, and there may even be more Tim Donaghys out there, although I doubt it. But the idea of the league fixing lotteries and throwing playoff series is ludicrous. The risk the NBA would be taking if something like that were discovered -- and you know there would be some Matt Walsh type who would have leaked it by now -- simply wouldn't be worth the possible benefits.

 

And the guy is Stern, who looks down when picking the first envelope, but toward everyone when picking the other six. The process starts at about 4:45.

 

You can't tell where Stern is looking on the first envelope because the camera cuts to a shot of his hand reaching into the bin. And if the envelope was frozen, as the conventional theory supposes, why would it matter whether he was looking down or not?

On top of that, the head of the accounting firm who vouched for the process, and the two members of NBA security who were part of the lottery would have to have been in on the fix as well. No. Sorry. Not buying it.