We now know the potential home for consensus number draft pick Cooper Flagg. Ahead of the Draft Lottery, it was a three-way tie between the Utah Jazz, the Washington Wizards, and the Charlotte Hornets. All entered the lottery on Monday with the same odds (14%) of landing the No. 1 pick. But none of them could benefit from it. However, the odds were not in favor of Nico Harrison, yet he won. After trading away Luka Doncic and now winning the number one pick, the social media and the players reacted, supposedly calling out ‘rigging’.

Let’s not forget that after the trade, the team finished their season in the Play-in spot. They did not have their franchise’s worst season, unlike the Jazz. Yet the odds Gods were in favor of the Dallas Mavericks. As they had only a 1.8% chance to win the lottery coming into Monday, and jumped from #11 to the overall first pick. After trading away Doncic, they seemingly have another superstar talent who can take the rule the hearts of the Mavs fanbase.

The most enraged are the Utah Jazz fans, who had the worst season, plus the best odds, and yet fell down to #5. Even though the minority owner was a positive one, the fan base was very blunt with their opinion. “But…… There has been some great players drafted with the 5th pick!” Dwyane Wade added to X with his own GIF to find some silver lining.

But one fan added, “D-Wade it was rigged. Whole world knows that.” This was not the only reaction against the potential setup that seemingly has helped the Mavericks and their future. Even LeBron James left a perfect reaction to the entire situation. Without saying a word, he added on X, “🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.”One of the biggest names in the game with this reaction signifies the people’s reaction as well.

Despite Dwyane Wade’s positive outlook, fans call out Adam Silver’s league

Even though LeBron laughed at the matter, it was no laughing matter for the Jazz fanbase. Taking into account the tweet from the Lakers superstar, a fan simply wrote, “What an awful look for the league dude. All the players know too. Pathetic.” This adds more pressure on the league’s commissioner, who wants to build trust with more transparency.

Another issue that arose was not only Mavericks being first, but the other two teams that followed them. San Antonio, with back-to-back rookies of the year in Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle, will pick second. Meanwhile, Philadelphia will pick third after creating Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George’s Big 3. Because of which a fan vented, “Most rigged lottery ever Mavs, Spurs, Sixers in the top 3!!!! What a joke,” Naturally, the Beehive State franchise was enraged.

Utah had the worst record in the NBA during the 2024-25 season. They won a franchise record low of 17 games, losing the remaining 65. With losing effort and top odds, the Jazz can only draft as high as the number 5 pick. But a Jazz fan knows pick 5 was the bare minimum, “Appreciate the positive spin, genuinely. But this is a catastrophe for the Jazz. The latest in a neverending procession.” The losing effort from the franchise was not a recent discovery.

Dwyane Wade’s Jazz had been near or at the bottom of the NBA standings for the last three years. However, their tanking efforts were more concrete during the last season, and while their efforts paid off in a guaranteed top-five pick, they still weren’t able to get the ultimate prize. So a netizen wrote, “We get that but you gotta understand they had 1 percent chance the math ain’t mathing!” Since the lottery odds were flattened in 2019, the team with the worst overall regular-season record has not won the lottery.

The Jazz entered the lottery with a 14 percent chance of drafting first, a 13.4 percent chance of drafting second, a 12.7 percent chance of drafting third, a 12.0 percent chance of drafting fourth, and a 47.9 percent chance of falling to fifth. And it was apparently the worst possible outcome after the worst possible season. Let’s see if Dwyane Wade’s positive approach helps them for the upcoming season.