Why the hell don't they just broadcast the drawing of the ping-pong balls live, so there is no suspicion that there was tampering or that David Stern doesn't just give the top 3 picks to whom he wants? Seems like it would be a logical thing to do to me. Anybody (or everybody) agree?
Simple, then we couldn't see that it was rigged. It is rigged, they don't want us to know, so they do it behind closed doors.
Imagine having to watch this After the bulls win #1 . .then watching their balls come up for # 2 8 times before someone elses then 10 times for the #3 etc.. otherwise they'd have to stop the whole thing and take out all the Bulls Balls. . .then do #2 etc it would be good to see. . but boring . .. even for espn 2 Rocket River
I'm pretty sure they dont do it like that RocketRiver. And im also positive i watched it at halftime of a playoff game.
RocketRiver is pretty much correct. This will be the third time that I've posted this same answer, but here goes. Here's the original threads: http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18843&perpage=30&pagenumber=2 http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10838&perpage=30&pagenumber=3 here's the main points: 1)<i>The lottery use to be live back when all teams had a single ball. Once they went to the weighted system, the actual drawing hasn't been live, but there's a pretty good reason for that. The way the lottery works, there are are 14 numbered balls placed in a hopper. There are 1000 four number combinations assigned among the lottery teams (there is one dead combination that isn't assigned to anyone). four balls are selected and they check to see who owns that combination. If it's the dead combination, then they draw again, otherwise the team owning that combo has the first pick. Then they put all the balls back in and draw four more balls for the second pick. If the combination drawn is either the dead combination or a combination owned by the team that won the first pick, then they pick again. Repeat the process for the third pick. As you can see, there's a very good chance that some of the picks will have to be redrawn (possibly multiple times) and the fact that once a combination is drawn, they have to go check a chart to actually find out who's holding that combination. It's not fixed, it just doesn't make for very compelling TV.</i> So, there's not actually multiple balls for per team, there are multiple combinations of number per team, so Rocket River is dead on. It would be incredibly boring for 99% of the TV viewers and it could take much longer than the 3 minute segment that they show now. Back when all teams in the lottery had an equal chance (i.e. a single ball in the hopper), there was no chance of having to have a redraw (or multiple ones at that), so it was pretty easy to make the lottery fit in a 3 minute segment. 2) <I> Yes, there are representatives of all 13 lottery teams present when the balls are placed in the hopper and when each number is drawn and when the teams owning the winning numbers are verified. The team representatives are kept isolated until the actual lottery results are announced. Here's a quote from a Houston Chronicle story on 5/21/00 about the lottery: <B> Teams may have been less than thrilled with the Magic's and Hornets' back-to-back good fortune, but the Spurs in 1997 were perhaps the least appreciated lottery winner. Owner Peter Holt represented the Spurs on the stage. But in the back room, where the actual lottery is held and the positions secured, Schuler served as the Spurs' official monitor and unofficial sacrificial lamb to envious runners-up. "Our combination of numbers come up first," Schuler said. "It was dead quiet in there. People I've known for years, guys in my position or business people, nobody would talk to me. Everybody could see right away that along with David Robinson, Tim gave us a chance to be a pretty good team again. I just had to sit there twiddling my thumbs." It was a long hour. The NBA allows no contact with the outside world until after the cards are uncovered onstage. The backstage observers are searched for cellular phones before they enter the room. If one must use a restroom, he is escorted by security to make sure he doesn't make a call. "It's really hard to sit there," Schuler said. "You're on the edge of your chair, but there's nothing you can do."</B></I>
I just ran the lottery generator for the first time this year and the Knicks came up with the top pick. Obviously Clutch's generator is rigged!
Is it possible for them to control the order in which the balls come out? Example: Chicago has 3-1-8-12 or whatever, could they rig those balls to make sure that comes out first.
I would assume they use a machine similar to the one that is used for state lottery drawings. I don't see how they could rig how the balls come out except for using some sort of wieghts in the balls. But doing that would seem to make no sense as those same balls would come out everytime and you would not get any different combinations.
That´s interesting to get to know how it actually works. Even if it would make for boring TV, I think a lot of people (I for one) would like to watch it. And for those speculating about the "riggetability" of it, I just have to say "anything is riggable"
Well, could they weigh down all the balls except the ones they want to come out? Could they switch the weights next year? Just playin devil's advocate.
LIke it was said above. I am sure it is possible to rig it. I'm just not sure how they would do it. IF they weighted the balls they wanted to appear(or weighted the ones they did not want to appear) it still might not work. I'll use the following example to illustrate what i mean: Lets say that good ole David Stern wanted the Bulls to win. So he weights every ball except 1-2-3-4. Theoretically 1-2-3-4 should come up but not always in that order. And that should be no problem however there is no garauntee that they will com eup in that order. they could show up in any order. Therefore they would have to choose 4 numbers to weight that produced only cobinations that the Bulls held. For teams with lots of combos it would be easier to find such numbers. But for teams that have less than 24 combinations(picks 9-13) it would not work. It would also seem that it would be pretty obvious to observers. The way those lotto machines work is that air blows the balls around. To get it to work you would have to weigh the balls down enough to keep the air from being able to blow them high enough to reach the hole. If that is done it would be pretty obvious if 4 balls are blowing around and the rest are kinda just sitting there. Like I said at the top it could be done but I think it would be pretty difficult to do. CK Edit-- I missed this originally. Gr8-1, I meant in my original post not that the same balls would come up each year. But that the same balls would come up for pick 2, and pick 3. If they were weighted to where the first pick was assured to a certain combo then when they put those balls back in for the 2nd pick they would continually come up. For this to work they would have to devise a way to unweight the balls after the first pick.
Obviously the league has hired David Blaine as a consultant to fix the lottery. I should have thought of that before.
Hmm I guess these pictures tell the story David Blaine and his amazing levitating NBA lotto balls. David Blaine shows David Stern how the Knicks will win the NBA Lottery.
Sheesh, they have NBA.com TV and a website, why not at least tape the whole proceeding? Show the results at halftime for NBC, but show the whole deal on their channel that evening. Not perfect, but it would be more open, and kinda interesting too. If they're concerned about the image enough to send in a few reporters, why not take this simple step?
