Walker’s Weekly: Dallas Mavericks win number one pick months after trading away Luka Doncic

By Hunter Walker, Sports Editor

May 14, 2025

SANFORD, Maine – The NBA Draft Lottery happened Monday, May 12, and it caused a lot of mixed reactions after the Mavericks got the first pick in the draft despite having only a 1.8% chance at it, meanwhile the worst teams who had the best odds for the number one pick ended up with the fourth fifth and sixth picks.

The Dallas Mavericks were just in the NBA finals last year and looked to still be competing for another go at it, but in February traded their superstar point guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for power forward Anthony Davis. Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison faced tons of backlash for this trade but now people feel as if he has been handed this pick and is no longer facing as much backlash.

This is not the first time a team has traded the star of their team and proceeded to get the number one overall pick with low odds, and this is actually the second time in the past six years,  the New Orleans Pelicans traded Davis to the Lakers in 2019 and ended up getting the number one pick to draft Zion Williamson who was expected to be very good in the NBA, just like right now with Cooper Flagg.

Many people argue that this is rigged to boost the ratings and viewership for the NBA which was at its lowest going into this season. People are believing this because of the fact Doncic was traded to such a big market in Los Angeles and it was out of the blue, the New York Knicks who are of course in a big market as well look like they could possibly make the finals, and then the Mavericks get to add Cooper Flagg to their team with their already really good lineup. It is probably a stretch to say the entire league is rigged, but for the draft lottery everything points to it possibly being rigged, especially with it being done behind closed doors.

On the other hand there are people, mostly Mavericks fans, who think this is a miracle and they’re about to get their next franchise player, which is the case, they’ll be getting the next young star in the league. The issue is, the odds of getting the number one overall pick with a 1.8% chance of winning is not in their favor very much when the three worst teams in the league all have a 14% chance of winning the pick. This is what has led many to believe the draft was rigged in the favor of not only the Mavericks, but also the bigger markets so the NBA can get more viewership.

If it is rigged, nothing will be done of course because it would be rigged by the league owner Adam Silver and he would not admit to that due to the fact it would make lots of fans of the NBA even more mad than they currently are. Mavericks fans will be celebrating and even San Antonio Spurs fans will be after getting the second overall pick and being able to add some more talent to an already good team being built, but the fans of the Charlotte Hornets, Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards will be left disappointed like they are almost every year now.