The NBA Draft Lottery has brought one of the marquee sporting moments of 2025 full circle.
The Dallas Mavericks have won the lottery and reserve the rights to the No. 1 overall selection of the 2025 NBA Draft.
After losing a generational talent — coming as general manager Nico Harrison gift-wrapped Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers — the Mavericks now have a shot to land another franchise superstar.
Cooper Flagg, hailing from Duke, is the assumed top selection in the coming draft class.
Combine his athleticism, instincts, skill and more and there’s a player that’s absolutely capable of dictating a basketball game.
Flagg is only 18-years-old, too. He’s got a brilliant amount of upside.
And he’ll now be handed the keys to the city of Dallas, which was in need of a superstar after a brutal three-month stretch since trading Doncic.
The Mavericks jumped ten projected spots to land the top pick, though. They were supposed to be a lower-tier lottery team. They jumped to the top pick.
Fans were quick to call the lottery rigged. All eyes will be on Flagg with the Mavericks, who will assume the franchise player role to make up for the absence of Doncic.
LeBron James got in on the reaction, too. James is Doncic’s teammate with the Lakers — and arguably the greatest player of all time — though he couldn’t help but react to the moment.
Laughing emojis. That’s all James could offer for his reaction.
Nine of them, to be exact.
NBA fans went from feeling back for the Mavericks and their fans — which comes from the dysfunctionality of Harrison and his team of decision-makers — to calling the league rigged as the top pick lands in Dallas.
Harrison now gets rewarded for making one of the most groundbreaking moves in all of sports. A superstar-potential talent falls into his lap. And all James can do it laugh, along with millions of fans of the league.
