NBA Owners Convinced Mavericks Drafting Cooper Flagg Was 'Fixed'

Some things are too questionable to be a coincidence in the eyes of some people around the NBA.

Jun 25, 2025; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Cooper Flagg poses with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as first overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Cooper Flagg has been a godsend for the Dallas Mavericks. They were staring down a decade of irrelevancy after inexplicably trading away Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, only to win the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery on a 1.8% chance. All of a sudden, the franchise has hope again.

However, people around the NBA remain uncertain about the legitimacy of the Mavs winning the lottery, as Pablo Torre revealed on the "Chapo Trap House" podcast.

“I'll tell you that I remember I was at an event and I spoke to two NBA owners," Torre said about the Mavs winning the Lottery. "This was the day after the NBA lottery. And those two owners were both like, this was obviously fixed.”

“It's not just people on the Internet saying, this seems fixed to me…I'm saying literally two NBA owners did not trust the hand of Adam Silver to remain out of the proceedings in terms of rigging the NBA draft lottery.” @PabloTorre

Via Chapo Trap House: https://t.co/Mskn1D21Jd pic.twitter.com/inGUpisrxc

— Dru (@dru_star) February 18, 2026

A lot of people believe it was very convenient that Luka Doncic, one of the three best players in the world, was traded to the most iconic franchise in the NBA in the middle of the night for a mediocre package, only for the franchise to be rewarded with Cooper Flagg, a no-brainer first overall pick.

The Lakers were also looking down an era of irrelevancy as LeBron James is nearing retirement, and Anthony Davis was getting to the point where he couldn't be the best player on a team anymore and couldn't be trusted with his health. If only Nico Harrison saw that.

READ MORE: Mavericks' Mark Cuban Combats NBA Problem That Isn't Tanking

No, The Draft Lottery Was Not Rigged

There are a lot of circumstances that do look crazy in hindsight, and a lot of people don't like that they don't broadcast the drawing of the ping pong balls, or that it's done in "privacy."

It is not done in privacy, though. It is drawn in front of the media and team personnel, and you can watch the lottery drawings on YouTube.

The Mavericks had never jumped up in the lottery before, so they were due to get there at some point. The lottery is also witnessed by a third-party auditing company, Ernst & Young, which is worth a lot more than the NBA, to ensure there is no conspiracy and verify everything is legitimate.

Zach Lowe has talked about being in the room and reacting in the moment to the lottery, where team personnel couldn't believe it, but it just happened right in front of them.

Winning the lottery was not part of Nico Harrison's vision, as much as he tried to sell it. The plan was not for Anthony Davis to get hurt in his first game as a Maverick, Kyrie Irving to tear his ACL a month later, and for the Mavericks to lose in the Play-In Tournament. They wanted to win games and championships, not the draft lottery. Cooper Flagg may help them win championships eventually, but he was not the plan a year ago.

READ MORE: Mavericks Embrace Tanking With Latest Kyrie Irving Injury Announcement

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