LeBron James reacts to Dallas Mavericks winning 2025 NBA Draft lottery, rights to Cooper Flagg

James’ comment came nearly two months after he shared his thoughts on the NBA Draft. While appearing on The Pat McAfee Show in March, James hinted that some strings were pulled to have the Cleveland Cavaliers select him at No. 1 in the 2003 draft.

More on LeBron James and the Dallas Mavericks

“I knew there was a responsibility for sure,” James said. “Listen, man. During the ball drop. During the lottery drop. Cleveland got the No. 1 pick? I just don’t think that was — … Let’s keep LeBron home. Patrick Ewing to the Knicks. Derrick Rose to the Bulls. I understand the assignment, guys. I had to make sure that, you know, I had to do my part. I didn’t want to be a f*ck up.”

The Mavericks only had a 1.8 percent chance of winning the draft lottery. Now they have a chance to get back on top of the NBA mountain when they add Cooper Flagg to the roster.

“For us, it’s been a rough year as you all know,” said four-time NBA All-Star Rolando Blackman, who represented Dallas at the draft lottery, per ESPN. “But the important part of the whole thing is that we’ll get a chance to move our franchise forward. We have a tremendous staff and management. The important factor for us is to being able to continue in that tradition and to be able to move forward. It’s really a great honor, and it’s an important piece of the puzzle because we’ve been wanting hoop down in Dallas.