Do people really think the lottery is fixed?

[Moranis]

and I am absolutely astonished that over half of the people voting actual believe the lottery is fixed at least part of the time.  Nuts.

[goCeltics]

the  nba sequences the numbers so they can manipulate the odds, when the c's and the grizz where 1 and 2 in draft lotto odds all there combos had the number 1 and 2, guess which numbers never popped out of the machine?  the only reason you would sequence the numbers like that is to be able to rigg it easily

[Kane3387]

Sometimes I think it might be. However that seems like an incredibly hard thing to keep secret.

[goCeltics]

the lotto is flawed system it punishes poor teams,, and it doesn't achieve it's goal of stopping tanking, it actually encourages tanking, because say your the seventh worst team, if u tank and get to the 5th spot you don't just up 2 spots but u also increse your chances at the number overall pick, hence more incentive to tank,  this is the reason why there is much less tanking in the nfl

[Roy H.]

Some of the results seem a little ...  convenient?  ... suspicious? 

I don't think the lottery is rigged, but it sure does seem like it sometimes.

[Neurotic Guy]

It is without question that I think the lottery is NOT fixed.

This is what I think of course, not what I know. But I have a hard time believing that DS and his minions, with such a publicly scrutinized event (lotter) and with SO MANY potential people easily able to blow the whistle on such a conspiracy, would risk all for such meager gain.  And, when you really think about it, unless you are a paranoid Boston fan certain that Tim Duncan and Greg Oden were purposely ripped from your grasp, when has the #1 pick gone suspiciously to a team that Stern might be suspected of prefering?  Please don't say you have to go back to Patrick Ewing to prove your point.  Really. look at the pathetic list of under-achieving franchises that have 'won' the #1 pick since Ewing -- which, BTW, was 27 years ago.

I also do not think Stern is stupid enough to tell refs to call a game in favor of 1 team over another.  There would be just too much risk.  Suspision is already high because of Donaughy, mediocre ref quality and high public/media. And again, it takes just ONE whistle-blower to take down the entire league.  It makes no sense to me to believe this stuff.

[esel1000]

I think its interesting that they don't show the actual lottery, they just tell you the results of it. That's a little suspicious in my eyes

[LarBrd33]

and I am absolutely astonished that over half of the people voting actual believe the lottery is fixed at least part of the time.  Nuts.

Don't be too astonished.  I saw a poll the other day on CNN's website.  Close to half of the people who voted didn't believe in Evolution.  Easy to say they are just stupid, but I bet if they did follow-up questions with those folks... they probably couldn't even properly explain what evolution is.  Even my own cousin said to me once, "Lol... you think our great great grandfather was a monkey?"... Blame ignorance if anything.  

Probably a little of that here.  Most of the people I've talked to who believe the lotto is "rigged" don't actually understand how the lotto process works.  Not necessarily their fault.  I'm pretty sure the NBA explains it during the TV special (1000 different 4 digit combinations...4 tumblers with 14 balls each like any government run lottery, each team owns a certain amount of the combinations... media present during the entire thing to sniff out a fraud), but most people just see the results and go "OMG... FIXED!" or they are just being cheeky.

That said,  I think you could have a much stronger case arguing that those old lottos with the envelopes were fixed (the frozen Knicks envelope theory, for instance)...

[LarBrd33]

and I am absolutely astonished that over half of the people voting actual believe the lottery is fixed at least part of the time.  Nuts.

Don't be too astonished.  I saw a poll the other day on CNN's website.  Close to half of the people who voted didn't believe in Evolution.  Easy to say they are just stupid, but I bet if they did follow-up questions with those folks... they probably couldn't even properly explain what evolution is.  Even my own cousin said to me once, "Lol... you think our great great grandfather was a monkey?"... Blame ignorance if anything. 

Probably a little of that here.  Most of the people I've talked to who believe the lotto is "rigged" don't actually understand how the lotto process works.  Not necessarily their fault.  I'm pretty sure the NBA explains it during the TV special (1000 different 4 digit combinations...4 tumblers with 14 balls each like any government run lottery, each team owns a certain amount of the combinations... media present during the entire thing to sniff out a fraud), but most people just see the results and go "OMG... FIXED!" or they are just being cheeky.

That said,  I think you could have a much stronger case arguing that those old lottos with the envelopes were fixed (the frozen Knicks envelope theory, for instance)...

Can one of the 13 people who voted that the lotto is fixed please read this article and let me know if your opinion changes:  http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2012/05/30/nba-draft-lottery/

and here is his follow-up article where he comments on the conspiracy theory:  http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2012/05/31/an-nba-draft-lottery-conspiracy-it-didnt-seem-that-way/

[GreenFaith1819]

I see some of you all beat me to it....the link on CNN's homepage about a possible conspiracy with this thing?

Where there's smoke........................

[cman88]

If nba execs believe it why shouldn't we?

[gar]

Absolutely!

Stern must go.

[CeltsAcumen]

I dont know if it was "Fixed" in terms of there was no other way the balls would of bounced, however, is it peculiar that the NOLA Hornets were owned by the league, a super star top prospect is in this draft and oh yeah, Stern vetoed the original Laker trade that would of sent Chris Paul LA.

Personally, I think Stern was going to make sure everything in NOLA was at as high a level as possible to the detriment of all other franchises.

Is that fixing the lottery?  No.  Is what Stern is trying to do shady as all hell?  Yes.

The Lottery in itself is an effing joke.  So the team that needs help the most, the Bobcats do not get the first pick?  Please David Stern justify this logic?

David Stern is a con artist at the level of Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan.  He is hired to do whatever it takes to make the NBA money with little or no regard for anything or anyone else.

[pearljammer10]

Suspicion would be my word to use over fixed... i didnt vote because i am completely undecided on the topic. I dont wanna believe, but kinda sorta completely believe that at least this year it was fixed.

[Chelm]

Can one of the 13 people who voted that the lotto is fixed please read this article and let me know if your opinion changes:  http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2012/05/30/nba-draft-lottery/

and here is his follow-up article where he comments on the conspiracy theory:  http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2012/05/31/an-nba-draft-lottery-conspiracy-it-didnt-seem-that-way/

This needs to be bumped over and over again.  Do you realize how much money someone would get if he published a book about this conspiracy, and how it was perpetrated?  It would be enough that it would have happened by now.

In unrelated news, an engineer I work with spent half an hour in my office trying to convince me the Holocaust didn't happen.  He saw some youtube conspiracy theory video and now he is convinced.  I'm serious.  Conspiracy theorists make me really uncomfortable.