LeBron Said The Quiet Part Out Loud By Suggesting The NBA May Have Rigged The 2003 Lottery So He Ended Up In Cleveland

Jennifer Pottheiser. Getty Images.

The NBA initially came up with the idea for the Draft Lottery all the way back in 1985. Ever since that moment, not only did the draft process change forever, but it also served as ground zero for one of my favorite NBA bits, which is Draft Lottery conspiracies. That 1985 Draft as we know is the Patrick Ewing draft, and with that came the famous "frozen envelope" conspiracy where the NBA did everything they could to get Ewing to the Knicks.

And while logic would lead you to believe a lot of that stuff is bullshit and there is no funny business when it comes to the Lottery, after hearing LeBron talk about his 2003 Draft, now I'm not so sure what to believe

Like look at Adam Silver

You have to admit, LeBron does make an interesting point. Would it shock anyone if the league had certain preferences of where their generational talents ended up? I will say in his situation back in 2003, the league at least had some cover. Entering that Lottery, CLE was 17-65. They had the most balls in the lottery machine and a 22.5% chance of winning. If we're to believe there was funny business going on in that Lottery, the legaue could at least make the case that all happened was what the odds said had the best chance of happening, and they'd be right.

But something like the DRose draft? That's an entirely different story. The Bulls only had a 1.7% chance to win the lottery and snag hometown hero Derrick Rose, so you could understand why some out there may think the NBA does interfere with this stuff. A huge market, a premiere franchise, a homegrown player, sound familiar?

If you really wanted to go crazy with this idea, it's not even just the "hometown" player that tends to be in these positions. There have been plenty of other suspicious Lottery results that certainly play into the whole conspiracy angle. 

Remember when LeBron left for the Heat in the summer of 2010? Well, what do we think happened in the 2011 Lottery? At that time, the Cavs had 2 picks. Their own and the Clippers pick. The prize that year was point guard Kyrie Irving. Somehow, despite the Cavs pick having a 22.7% chance of winning and the Clippers pick only having a 2.8% chance, guess what happened? The Cavs somehow won the Lottery with the Clippers pick, and it gave them their next superstar for the post-LeBron era. Imagine that! 

How about when the Hornets won the Lottery in 2012 to win the Anthony Davis sweepstakes? I'll remind you that in April of 2012, the Hornets were purchased by Tom Benson from the NBA for $338M. What a coincidence! A sale goes through, and then one month later in May, that team wins the Lottery? Conspiracies were flying around left and right, especially since this picture of AD surfaced before it all went down

How about in the post-LeBron world in Cleveland? Things hadn't been going so hot for that franchise, despite winning the Kyrie lottery, so what did we see? We saw the Cavs, for the first time since 1992-1993, win the Lottery in back-to-back years. After missing on the Anthony Bennett pick, the Cavs were given a do-over in the highly anticipated Andrew Wiggins draft. Now, what else happened later that summer in 2014 after the Cavs won the Lottery?

Oh, that's right, LeBron came back to CLE! I'm sure the league office had zero idea that was on the horizon! Meanwhile, their winning that #1 pick is what allowed them to trade for Kevin Love, and the rest is history. That year, the Cavs only had a 1.7% chance to win the whole thing, by the way. 

We're not done. How about in 2019, when AD demanded a trade out of New Orleans? You may remember this as the Zion draft. Another generational talent entering the league. Where did he end up? New Orleans! Almost like the NBA was rewarding them with another franchise guy after their current franchise guy forced his way out of town. That team only had a 6% chance to win the Lottery, yet somehow, luck just so happened to be on their side….again. 

Shit, you can even look at the recent Wemby draft and raise some questions. Even with the lottery odds flattened, if you could have picked any franchise to send another generational big man to, who are you picking between the Spurs, Pistons, and Rockets? Keep in mind, this player is coming from France, and guess which team has a HEAVY French influence with guys like Tony Parker and Boris Diaw? This is a player the NBA is very invested in and needs to develop into an all time player. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that he ended up with a great franchise and one that can make the transition as easy as possible!

Can any of this be proven? No, which is why they are conspiracy theories. But if LeBron is out here fueling the fire and there's are this many examples of some pretty crazy coincidences, maybe there is some truth to it? Perhaps the NBA using that outside firm to handle everything is their way of trying to have cover over what is really going on, and I can't really answer the question as to why a firm would put their entire reputation on the line by covering this all up, but all I know is something smells fishy when it comes to the Lottery. From Day 1 in 1985 all the way to now in 2025, the #signs keep showing up.

I do now wonder if Adam Silver or the league office will do something about this LeBron quote though. The biggest player in your sport is on national TV talking about how the Lottery is pretty much rigged? That's not good for business, especially a business that has a spotty history like the NBA when it comes to the validity of what we're watching. So while all of us probably agree with LeBron, my guess is that Adam Silver can't be too happy.