The Dallas Mavericks shocked the NBA world by winning the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, despite having only a 1.8% chance of landing it. The surprising outcome has sparked rumors that the lottery was rigged,

The Dallas Mavericks' improbable win of the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery with just a 1.8% chance has reignitedconspiracy theories about the lottery being rigged, and we have eight examples through history where it just might be.

The Dallas Mavericks had only a 1.8 percent chance of winning the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, but that was not the unlikeliest jump in lottery history.

The results of the lottery demonstrated again that the system is a complete failure. Not only does it not promote parity, it does not prevent tanking, which was the intent of the lottery in the first place. It actually encourages more tanking now that comparable odds are spread among so many teams.

The Dallas Mavericks have secured the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft in scenes that have left basketball fans furious.

Well, the NBA Draft Lottery gods have a sense of humor. So much for the idea of Cooper Flagg going to a 20-win team. Instead, a statistically improbable Dallas Mavericks-San Antonio Spurs-Philadelphia 76ers-Charlotte Hornets top four upended all our previous assumptions about what might happen in the lead-up to the NBA Draft.

Cooper Flagg is widely-assumed to be the No. 1 overall draft pick, an 18-year-old forward who starred during his one season in the NCAA with Duke. The Mavs have already indicated that they are not planning to trade the No. 1 pick and Flagg looks set to join Dallas for the 2025/26 NBA season.

It's been 40 years since the first NBA draft lottery. The New York Knicks won it back in 1985 and got to draft Patrick Ewing.