NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal added fuel to the conspiracy fire about the draft being rigged. As someone who was picked first overall in 1992 by the Orlando Magic, the “Diesel” said that wasn’t a coincidence because it felt preplanned. The four-time champion said that then commissioner David Stern made it a point to cater to O’Neal’s request.
“In 1992, the draft was in June or something. I meet Mr. Stern in March. He says to me, ‘Can’t wait for you to come to the NBA.’ Then he pulled me to the side, ‘You want to play where it’s cold or where it’s hot?’ He asked me that. And I was like, ‘Hot.’ And he smiled and I smiled and then a couple of days later, they had the draft thing with the top three things and Minnesota was No. 3. And then Charlotte was No. 2 and Orlando was No. 1,” O’Neal said on Ashley Nevel’s podcast.
More evidence
The talks about the NBA Draft being rigged became a topic as of late again after the Dallas Mavericks won this year’s lottery. The Mavs overcame the 1.8 percent odds to win the rights to 18-year-old Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, who is the undisputed favorite to be this year’s number-one pick. The irony that isn’t lost is that it seems Flagg is being gifted to the Texas-based team right after they traded franchise player Luka Doncic.
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“You hear a lot of these conspiracy theories, and there’s a lot of situations that could make these things sound good and sound true,” O’Neal said. “It’s very interesting how it all played out.”
It’s interesting indeed, just like how the Magic drafted the three-time NBA Finals MVP after he told Stern that he preferred to play where it’s hot. Or in 2003 when it was the Cleveland Cavaliers that won the rights to acquire homegrown talent LeBron James — who was already known as one of, if not, the greatest draft prospect in NBA history.
There’s also that time when the New York Knicks, after struggling for a decade, won the lottery in 1985 which gave them the rights to land Patrick Ewing. Examples like these are why even the likes of James himself believes the lottery has been rigged for years and it seems that’s not going to stop anytime soon.
Good or bad for the league?
No matter how many times NBA insiders insist that the lottery isn’t rigged, it will not change the consensus’ belief that it is because they understand that at the end of the day, the NBA is also considered an entertainment business.
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Take this year’s lottery as an example: The idea of Flagg going to Dallas is automatically going to generate headlines because the organization went from trading away arguably their best franchise player in history to acquiring the most popular local draft prospect the NBA has seen in years. There’s also the fact that Dallas will be associated with the Los Angeles Lakers for years to come, which only makes the storylines around selecting Flagg much juicier.
That’s why O’Neal’s right in saying that a lot of situations have happened to make these rigged conspiracies sound good and true. His recent revelation is another testament to those theories.