Just three months after trading Luka Doncic away to the Los Angeles Lakers in one of the least popular deals in NBA history, the Dallas Mavericks parlayed a 1.8% chance of winning the draft lottery into the rights to select Duke Blue Devils basketball star Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 overall pick.
ESPN analyst and former Duke assistant coach Jay Bilas, who was drafted by the Mavs in 1986, told me that the conspiracy theories against Dallas’s long-shot lottery triumph were “laughable.”
As Bilas relayed, the accusations against the NBA imply that the Association is committing federal crimes – and that they’ve been going on since the New York Knicks landed the rights to Patrick Ewing in the 1985 draft.
“The number of people that would have to be involved in a conspiracy that vast would dictate that it couldn't be pulled off. But there's no way and and look, I get it that people who don't think about it, and the convenient thing, I mean, it goes all the way back to 1985 with the the furnished lottery when the conspiracy theory was that the New York next envelope was kept in a freezer and and whoever was picking them out could could pick it out and and feel the cold one. That seems absurd in of itself. But I remember David Stern, when asked about it, would say, ‘You realize you're accusing us of a federal crime,’” Bilas said.
“I don't even know which accounting firm does it, but you've got professionals that are involved that are independent, and I just find that laughable without one shred of evidence other than something that we thought would happen, didn’t happen, but still had a chance of happening. It's just it's mind-boggling how ridiculous these theories are.”
Bilas declared support for the draft lottery system as it is.
He also discussed several ideas that could be on the table during the NBA and NBPA’s next round of CBA negotiations.
“I can certainly see why you wouldn't want a system that just automatically awards it to the team with the worst record, because that's a race to the bottom for teams that are not going to be in the mix for a championship. The flip side of that, or another side of that, every year a team gets the No. 1 pick, and every 30 years, you're gonna have the pick. I don't know whether that's right or wrong. I was talking with some friends of mine the other day, and saying, ‘Why couldn't it be something where non-playoff teams it's determined by your record so there's incentive for you to win not to lose,’ and they could they could do it over a three or four year period, whatever they want,” Bilas said of an idea that had been discussed with peers.
“I think it works pretty well the way it is. It certainly gives you an exciting night and time period, and it gives you a discussion about the draft well before the draft gets there.”
The system that got Flagg to the Metroplex doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. Talks have begun about alternatives, at least.
Bilas provided media availability in advance of the 2025 American Century Championship at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort from July 9-13. Bilas will be one of the 91 competitors in Stateline, Nevada, for the annual celebrity golf tournament.