They say it is number combinations, the worse teams have the most number combinations, I would say yes.
I used to call the "NBA Draft Is Rigged" people crackpots. Call me a crackpot because I'm with you. Years ago I think it was legit but now I think Silver runs the whole game. This is all just a show.
Because they use the ping pong balls, teams have hundreds of balls in there. The #1 pick is chosen first, then they have to remove all of that team's balls and run it again that way for each of the first four picks. And the accountants are probably verifying stuff ad nauseum between each draw. It would be anti-climatic and tedious to show all that going on live. They present the results in a nice little 30 minute package with some drama at the end. I believe it's a little more on the up-and-up than the days of pulling an envelop out of a bag.
Honestly, how in the **** do people think it is rigged and still explain a world when one of the league’s smallest markets and most boring franchises got the most transformative pick in a decade? And from Houston fans, whose franchise benefited from the most lucrative low-odds number-one pick ever? No same executive would EVER make either of those decisions. I absolutely buy that referees might sway games to a narrative … but that the lottery is rigged is absurd.
They do it behind closed doors but they also invited media members from every single team to watch it happen. I think Mark Berman was in the room for us while it happened last year iirc. If it is rigged it would be very complicated. The machine itself would have to be rigged.
Where are you getting that from? According to nba.com there are only 14 balls. They don't have to remove balls at all, other than the one that comes up.
I thought each team is assigned X amount of 4 digit numbers, then ping pong balls are drawn one digit at a time and then matched to the assigned numbers.
Right, yeah, that's how they say they do it. Not actually 4 digit numbers because the ping pong balls are 1-14, but each four number combination is assigned to a team, based on the draft odds.