NBA Commissioner Adam Silver takes subtle jab at other teams after Mavs win Lottery

Adam Silver recently appeared on FS1's "Breakfast Ball" where he discussed the Mavericks winning the first pick.

"We call it a 'Lottery', and I think some people think it was a one in a million chance that Dallas was going to win. Remember, the worst-performing team had a 14% chance at winning [the first overall pick], which means there was an 86% chance they wouldn't get it. Dallas had roughly a 2% chance, so the losingest team had a 7-times better chance. 2% is 2%, it's going to happen. When people say, therefore, that the lottery is broken, I have a different viewpoint, which the purpose of the Lottery is to disincentive teams from tanking. Here, you had a team that was clearly trying, whatever people think of that [Luka Doncic trade], they were trying to win, then Kyrie [Irving] got injured, then Anthony Davis got injured, and so then they found themselves in the Lottery."

It's too early to tell if the recent lotteries will stop teams from tanking, as the Atlanta Hawks won the 2024 Lottery with small odds too. It's a tough position to be in for the NBA, as they don't want teams to tank, but they want to increase parity, and it's hard for smaller market teams to get better without high draft picks.