Jay Bilas shoots down speculation NBA Draft Lottery is rigged

The Dallas Mavericks own the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. After winning Monday night’s NBA Draft Lottery, Dallas secured the top selection and the right to take Duke forward Cooper Flagg.

The Mavericks (39-43) missed the playoffs this season and had just a 1.8% chance of winning the lottery. But the ping-pong balls aligned just right for Dallas and now, Flagg is all but guaranteed to be a Maverick.

But the aftermath of the lottery wasn’t a celebration of Flagg’s NBA destination. Instead, the conversation went the conspiracy route. Many speculated that the NBA rigged the lottery in Dallas’ favor. ESPN analyst Jay Bilas shot down that theory while speaking with Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports.

“No, I get it in the culture we live in, with all the Netflix crime stories. It’s an absurd notion when you really think about it,” Bilas said. “With all the people involved and all the controls in place, and all the professionals. Not to mention, if that were rigged, that would be a federal crime. I don’t think anyone involved would see the draft as being worth that sort of enterprise.”

Dallas Mavericks take top spot in 2025 NBA Draft, set their sights on Cooper Flagg

Fourteen teams were vying for the No. 1 pick. Three had a 14% chance of ultimately winning — the Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards, and Charlotte Hornets. Utah, at 17-65, finished at the bottom of the league standings this season. The Jazz earned the fifth overall pick. Washington fell to sixth while the Hornets were awarded pick No. 4.

But as the lottery has shown over the years, losing the most games does not guarantee you the top selection in the draft. In fact, this is the seventh consecutive year that the team with the worst record has failed to secure the No. 1 pick.

As gut-wrenching as that is for Utah, Dallas will take it and sprint to the podium to select Flagg. To think, it was a favorable coin flip with the Chicago Bulls that gave them the 11th-best odds and turned out to be the lucky spot.

The Mavericks traded All-Star guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 1. Now, they have the opportunity to add another franchise cornerstone next to guard Kyrie Irving and forward Anthony Davis.

Flagg won the Wooden Award, along with being a Consensus All-American, ACC Player of the Year, and making the All-NCAA Tournament team in his lone season with the Blue Devils. He averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 37 games. Flagg shot just over 48% from the field and 38.5% from three.