Not saying this whole process is rigged, but ...

I want to save my end of year/end of high school review for next week, so last week I want to talk about the NBA draft.

You may have seen from various news sources that the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Lottery, a (supposedly) random system that assigns the worst 14 NBA teams the highest draft picks.

If you have one of the three worst records in the NBA, you get a 14% chance at the number one overall pick, with the following picks getting worse and worse odds for the top pick.

This year, the three worst teams were the Utah Jazz, the Washington Wizards, and (big shocker) the Charlotte Hornets. The winner of the NBA Lottery this year would be able to pick Cooper Flagg, an admittedly generational prospect, even though that term gets thrown around a bit too much.

He is 6’ 9”, can guard and shoot on 1-5, and is younger than most of my classmates, as he reclassed while in highschool to get to college faster. Theoretically, Cooper Flagg could play basketball for the next decade and just be entering his absolute prime, making him one of the best chances at resetting one’s roster in years.

Yet, despite possessing a combined record of 54-192, none of these three truly abysmal teams even placed in the top three of this year’s NBA draft. In fact, the three teams that ended up with the top three picks in this draft are actually on decent tracks.

The Philadelphia 76ers got the third pick (10% chance), the Spurs got the second pick (6% chance), and the Dallas Mavericks got the first overall pick (1.4%).

So the 76ers, with two young ascendant stars in Jared McCain and Tyrese Maxey, and an aging, injured center who needs to be replaced, get a chance to stay relatively competitive.

The Spurs, who have the best NBA prospect since Lebron James in Wembanyama, get a chance to couple a recent addition in De’Aaron Fox with a new bright star.

And the Dallas Mavericks, who made one of the worst trades in the history of any sport ever (and dare I say, the history of this universe), get totally bailed out by getting Cooper Flagg.

I’m not saying that the NBA Draft is rigged to favor big market teams or to construct narratives that make the League more profitable ... but.

The Hornets have been in the Lottery 26 times, including the past nine seasons in a row, and we got the first overall pick once, back in 1991. It’s not so much that I think the NBA Draft is rigged, but man, miraculous things happen a lot.

The first time was obviously Patrick Ewing, with those suspicious envelopes, where the New York Knicks received the first overall pick, and they were able to select the hometown kid, an undeniably gifted athletic beast who looked like he was manufactured in a lab to play basketball.

Unfortunately, Patty would get dogged on for the next decade and a half by the GOAT, but I would mark this as a definite rigging.

Then, there was Lebron James in 2003. Famously born in Akron, he was sent to Cleveland. At a 22.5% chance, this is a conceivable one, but still I think this can be added to the “miracles” list.

Oft-ignored, but the Derrick Rose pick in 2008 was … suspicious. The Bulls had been floundering for almost a decade straight, and Derrick Rose, a kid who was literally born in Englewood, was given to them at the first overall pick. They had a 1.7% chance at getting him. A bit suspicious, and wow those odds were low, but sometimes weird things happen.

Then, the Pelicans (the year after getting bought) were given the first pick with a 13% chance. With this pick, they got another generational prospect in Anthony Davis.

Oh yeah, and to prep Cleveland for Lebron’s re-arrival, they got three first overall picks in four years. They had a 1.7% chance in 2014 (Andrew Wiggins, who they traded for key player in Kevin Love), 15.6% in 2013 (picked historic bust), and 2.8% in 2011 (top 10 PG of all time Kyrie Irving). A bit odd.

Then, the Pelicans found themselves with an unhappy star in Anthony Davis, so they traded him to the Lakers to team with Lebron, and surprise! That year, with a 12% chance, they got the number one pick.

And now the Mavericks. They sent Luka Doncic, an All-NBA, Top 3 in the NBA, took his team to the finals one year earlier, to the Lakers in exchange for three dollars and Anthony Davis, without even shopping around the League at all. And then they got the number one overall pick after sending one of the League’s brightest and youngest stars to the League’s brightest teams, the Lakers.

The entire process does get audited, and yes, I do know how probability works, so I’m not saying the Draft is super rigged.

But.