NBA owners privately voiced suspicions of a rigged 2025 draft lottery, believing the Mavericks' top pick was suspiciously secured, sparking intense debate.
The Dallas Mavericks’ unlikely walk to the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft has ignited one of the most heated debates in recent NBA memory — and it’s not just fans talking.
On the Chapo Trap House podcast, journalist Pablo Torre revealed that two NBA owners privately told him they believe the lottery was “obviously fixed” when Dallas beat 1.8 % odds to land the top selection.
"I'll tell you that I remember I was at an event and I spoke to two NBA owners," Torre said. "This was the day after the NBA lottery. And those two owners were both like, this was obviously fixed."
That result was jaw-dropping on paper. The Mavericks were slotted outside the top contenders, hardly expected to climb all the way to the top. Yet that’s exactly what happened, vaulting the franchise into position to draft Cooper Flagg, widely regarded as a generational talent coming out of college.
The sequence of events — Dallas trading Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, then hitting the jackpot in the lottery — has made for a narrative that feels almost scripted. Some critics have suggested it was too perfect, feeding the idea that the league had a hand in steering the outcome.
But here’s the key point: skepticism does not equal proof. The NBA draft lottery is conducted under strict procedures, overseen by independent auditors and witnessed by team representatives and media. Even though the televised broadcast doesn’t show the actual ping-pong ball drawing live, the process itself is far from a black box.
Commissioner Adam Silver has publicly emphasized that the Mavericks simply beat the long odds laid out by the system — a system designed precisely to prevent predictable outcomes and discourage tanking.
In the end, the real question isn’t whether fans or insiders feel something didn’t add up — but whether there’s concrete evidence to show manipulation. So far, there isn’t.
But if it was not rigged even in the slightest, it has still made for one of the better stores in recent NBA history.