Very similar to its NHL counterpart, the NBA draft lottery ended with a very stunning end result.
One week after the Islanders bought the No. 1 choose within the NHL draft lottery with a 3.5 p.c likelihood, the Mavericks did the identical on Monday night time with even smaller odds at 1.8 p.c.
Which means Dallas, months after sending Luka Doncic to the Lakers in a commerce that utterly gobsmacked the sports activities world, now will get the possibility to take Duke famous person Cooper Flagg, who’s the consensus high prospect on this 12 months’s class.
It’s the primary time ever the Mavericks have received the lottery.
It’s the second time this 12 months a Dallas basketball membership can have the No. 1 choose, because the Wings of the WNBA chosen within the high spot and took UConn’s Paige Bueckers.
Unsurprisingly, followers, pundits and gamers have been all surprised by the way in which the lottery turned out.
LeBron James posted a string of crying laughing emojis on X with no textual content minutes after the information broke that Dallas would take first.
The Submit’s Stefan Bondy had a fantastic concept for what normal supervisor Nico Harrison ought to do.
“Mavericks should trade that pick for Luka,” he wrote on social media.
The Ringer’s Kirk Goldsberry had an excellent funnier concept: “Nico not picking Flagg would be the funniest thing in NBA history.”
Former presidential and ex-New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang was furious with the outcomes.
“The Mavericks getting the #1 pick is absolutely ridiculous,” he wrote.
“NICO HARRISON DOESNT DESERVE THIS PICK MAN,” wrote Kenny Beecham of Take pleasure in Bball.
“Nico Harrison should not be allowed to make this pick,” wrote Barstool Sports activities character Massive Cat. “He needs to be fired before the draft. I’m happy for Mavs fans, they deserve this, Nico does not.”
There have been, as there are in most years with the NBA draft lottery, conspiracy theorists on social media who believed the draft was rigged in favor of Dallas due to the unlikely odds.
Mavericks CEO Rick Welts mentioned the second was “surreal.”
“I’m the only person who was in this room and the room 40 years ago,” he mentioned, in accordance with the Washington Submit.
“I was in charge of the NBA draft lottery 40 years ago when Patrick Ewing won. I’ve been doing conspiracy theory stories ever since. This is very surreal, personally.”
