It would still be less blatant cheating BY THE LEAGUE than what the NHL did when the Vegas team came into the NHL. Make no mistake, the NHL wanted them to win Stanley Cups early. It was in the rules they set up for them. Trust me, the rules they came into the league with was vastly different than the Seattle team did. Vegas should have 3 Stanley Cups by now.
Let's assume the NBA did freeze the envelope in the lottery to get Ewing to the Knicks
- Thread starter Glenn's Take
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Hopefully the Canes keep Vegas stuck on 1 Cup.
Idk the NBA has seemingly been rigging the lottery for years. I mean the whole Luka to LA, then having Dallas land Flagg was so obvious.
If you were going to rig the lottery, why do it for Dallas instead of LA, Boston, NY, Chicago and why would any of the other teams go along with rigging it for one of their competitors?
I mean the reason for rigging it for Dallas is pretty obvious. They gave the Lakers Luca Doncic for Anthony Davis, which is a pretty lopsided trade. The NBA benefits by having a top7 player on a big market team. And then Dallas, with I believe a 1.8% chance to land the #1 pick, does so, and gets generational talent Cooper Flagg.
As for the rest of the league, I believe a common misconception is that the 30 owners want to win a title more than generate revenue. They are business owners first (most of them anyways), they'd love to win a title, but generating money and building the product comes first. It's why a good dozen MLB teams don't care to spend money to try and put the best team on the field: it doesn't make sense in the books for them. I believe the best kept secret was that the Luca-to-LA trade meant that Dallas was going to be given the #1 pick, a reward for handing over a premier player to one of the biggest markets.
That’s only partially true. The expansion draft rules that Vegas got were noticeably more favorable than the most recent prior expansions in 1998 (Nashville), 1999 (Atlanta), and 2001 (Minnesota and Columbus), and definitely seemed designed to give them a more competitive inaugural team than those franchises had to suffer through. It definitely makes me resent them a bit as a Predators fan.
To keep things completely factual though, Seattle actually got the exact same rules. The difference is that a few teams panicked at the thought of not being able to put every one of their productive players on the protected list during the Vegas draft and traded them treasure troves of assets in exchange for not drafting a particular player. By the time the Seattle draft happened, enough time had passed for them to realize that was a big mistake, and no such deals were really made.
To keep things completely factual though, Seattle actually got the exact same rules. The difference is that a few teams panicked at the thought of not being able to put every one of their productive players on the protected list during the Vegas draft and traded them treasure troves of assets in exchange for not drafting a particular player. By the time the Seattle draft happened, enough time had passed for them to realize that was a big mistake, and no such deals were really made.
You make some good points but we have a fundamental difference in the way we see the owners. You see a bunch of businessmen in a joint venture all working for the common good while I see a bunch of greedy, narcissicistic twits that would all demand it was fixed for them if it was fixed for anybody. If it's been rigged in recent years it's been rigged for San Antonio, one of the league's smaller markets; just doesn't make sense to me. Also, it's just too many people involved to keep that kind of secret. Just my opinion...
Oh I do think they're all greedy as well. Sports owners kind of feel like a collection of elites. There's obviously some that care more about winning than others, and I don't think EVERYTHING in sports is fixed.. just some small areas where certain players can moved around if it benefits the league. I mean it seems to be the case that Dallas had 1.8% chance to land the 1st pick, and sure enough, after hand delivering Luka to the Lakers, thats what they got. Just seems too good to be true. I think above everythign else, owners want to see the sport grow and be a compelling product to watch, spend money on tickets, and buy merchandise. I think they will forgo some winning IF it means lining their pockets.
San Antonio i have no answer for. It's a small market, so not sure what there is to gain.. maybe they truly won three 1st overall picks that landed them Robinson/Duncan/Wemby. All 3 are likely gonna be top30 players of all time, if not all ready.. maybe that was just blind luck.
Same reason there are good guys and bad guys in wrestling. It’s entertainment and the owners get paid to play their part.
Would it have looked fine if they had gone to the Lakers, Celtics, and Knicks respectively? They all had to go somewhere and none of those 3 locations are among the top markets.