I am not a conspiracy theorist by any means but this sure did make me think twice. Considering the hornets are still run by david stern what is your honest opinion in regards to the alleged scandal.
Scandal? The team with a 25% chance of winning the lottery got the 2nd pick. Where is the scandal? Is the scandal that the 3rd worst team has won the lotto 6 times and the worst team has only won the lotto 4 times? I think Stern should be investigated for rigging the lotto so the Clippers win it. I mean they have won it 5 times! Since 1994 when the NBA went to 1000 balls the worst team has only 2 times out of 19 times. 25% chance of winning means 75% chance of not winning.....
I don't believe this. He does it every time he has: 1) Something to gain 2) Someone to pay back. He gave the Lotto to Cleveland last year because of Lebron. This year in order to secure his selling price for the Hornets. Every year I don't believe it is rigged though, as sometimes there is nothing for Stern to gain.
Showing the ping pong balls seems like an obvious thing to do if they want to eliminate any conspiracy theories. I think that's just the right thing for them to do, and honestly, it would probably add some excitement to the whole lottery process. Having said that, I don't think it's rigged. Does anybody ever stop to think that maybe the Hornets, who had 2 chances to win, as well as the 4th best odds with their top pick, might have just beaten the odds? The team with the best odds got 2nd place. Is that so bad? People just assume the worst. I'm sure owners, GM's, coaches, etc. would all become a little bit suspicious and investigate if they weren't sure they were getting a fair shake. But once again, I think that the ping pong balls should be shown mid-presentation to eliminate any theories. It just makes the most sense for both the league and it's fans.
Rose to his homeland Chicago, when they should get number 13 Wall to Washington because of Abe's death Oden to Portland. The last piece in rebuilding mode And so on and on and on....
Ok,let's think about this. First the basics of how the lottery is conducted - The lottery drawing is attended by representitives from the league office, representitives of each lottery team and representatives from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young. - The hopper contains 14 ping pong balls numbered from 1 to 14. - For 14 ping pong balls there are 1001 possible combinations (regardless of order). in other words 1,2,3,4 is the same as 4,3,2,1 If you want to do the math here's the calculation: 14/4 * 13/3 * 12/2 * 11/1 = 24,024/24 = 1,001 - 1000 of the possible combinations are assigned to the lottery teams in a weighted fashion. Charlotte received 250 combinations and Houston received 5 combinations. - The one remaining combination is an "unassigned" or "dead" combination. - Now the actual drawing process 1. The balls are mixed up 2. 4 balls are drawn 3. If the combination drawn is the unassigned/dead number then the balls are placed back in the hopper,remixed and redrawn. 4. The team that holds the selected combination is awarded the #1 pick. 5. All of the balls are placed back in the hopper. Note: all combinations assigned to the winner of the first pick are now unassigned or dead numbers. 6. Balls are remixed and 4 balls are drawn. 7. If the combination drawn is an unassigned/dead number then the balls are placed back in the hopper,remixed and redrawn. This scenario occured at the 2002 Lottery. Houston's combination was drawn for the #1 pick and then another Houston combination was selected for the 2nd pick (necessatating a redraw). 8. Keep drawing until you select an assigned combination. 9. The team that holds the selected combination is assigned the 2nd pick. 10. All of the balls are placed back in the hopper. Note: All combinations assigned to the winner of the first and second pick are now unassigned or dead numbers.If Charlotte and Washington had been selected #1 and #2 then 44.9% of the combinations would have been dead combinations when selecting the 3rd pick. 11. Balls are remixed and 4 balls are drawn. 12. If the combination drawn is an unassigned/dead number then the balls are placed back in the hopper,remixed and redrawn. 13. Keep drawing until you select an assigned combination. 14. The team that holds the selected combination is assigned the 3rd pick. So,as you can see it's not as simple or dramatic as drawing a ball and declaring who has the pick. They have to remixthe balls after each draw and there's the possibility of having to reselect due to dead numbers. That could be a very tedious process and hardly makes for compelling television. Is it really surprising that they don't show the actual drawing. - Now the idea of a fix The whole reason for using 14 balls that are redrawn each time is to minimize the opportunity for fixing the drawing. The same 14 balls are used for each of the 3 picks. This eliminates the opportunity for a "magic" ball that is fixed to come out first. The "frozed envelope" was a popular theory as to how the league rigged the '85 lottery for the Knicks to get Ewing (while still showing the drawing live). So,let's assume that I can somehow alter 4 of the balls to guarentee that they are selected first. Let's say that I fill them with helium and they are selected on the first drawing. Now those balls are placed back in the hopper for the 2nd pick. So,shouldn't they come up again? So,let's say that I can somehow manipulate the first pick and not cause the same numbers to come up continually. Whatever I'm doing has to either be able to fool representatives for all of the lottery teams and the Ernst & Young guys or they all have to be in on the fix. That doesn't sound too easy. Either those guys have to be stupid or I now have a conspiracy that involves over 20 people and I'm going to have to count on none of them talking at anytime in the future. In other words the Rockets representative is in on the fixand they are ok with it? charlotte is good with Nola getting Davis? Why? To get to this point I've been able to somehow manipulate which balls are drawn. I've either fooled everyone in the room or every single one of them is involved in the conspiracy. If I can accomplish all of that then why in the world would the fact that it was shown on TV convince you of anything? David Copperfield and David Blaine have made a living off of using camera tricks to fool audiences. If I can fool all of the people actually in the room then a TV audience isn't going to be a problem. To me,the idea is pretty far fetched. It's just too complicated to pull off and there's too much risk if caught. The NBA is a multi-billion dollar business and if it were found to be rigging it's lottery then the backlash would be huge. They are going to take that risk to put Anthony Davis in New Orleans? Really? As someone pointed out,if you really believe it's fixed then it is impossible to convince you otherwise. Of course,then you should also think that every state lottery and political election is also fixed.
It's David Stern dude, what do you expect us to assume? I once saw the dude eat a man's face, take a bullet, and all he did was growl. He's a god damn baby murderer!
The concept of making increasingly complex a process does not mean its integrity cannot be undermined. In fact I would argue that it makes it even more easy to do so. Magicians do this by making their tricks very elaborate so you are distracted when the actual ruse takes place. Electioneering in developing countries frequently contends with this issue. They can do all they want with the ping pong balls but really what they need is a nonrandom way to assign picks, because any other way opens the door for rigging. Actually what they need is for Stern to leave because given his track record you cannot trust any of the going-ons behind the scenes in the NBA administration. It's a simple fact: of all the sports, basketball has the least legitimacy, and in an industry so predicated on the pretense of fair play, that to me is about the most damning comment you can make. I. Don't. Believe. Anymore.
