New Orleans Hornets Win the NBA Lottery, Conspiracy Theorist Rejoice

The New Orleans have won the NBA lottery and now will more than likely select University of Kentucky’s Anthony Davis with the number 1 pick in the draft.  That pick will come as no surprise. However, the Hornets winning the lottery have made conspiracy theorist raise an eyebrow.

Fans and media alike are saying they doubt the lottery wasn’t rigged for the Hornets considering the league still technically owns the team, even though they’ve come to an agreement to sell the team to New Orleans Saints Owner Tom Benson. Factor in they just lost All-Star point guard Chris Paul, many are suggesting that’s why they now have the opportunity to draft what many think is a franchise player with the number pick.

The only flaw I find in this argument is, there is no team that had a legit shot to win the lottery that people wouldn’t had said the lottery was fixed for.

If the Charlotte Bobcats had won it, the narrative would’ve been the league was looking out for Michael Jordan. If the Cavs would’ve won it for a second year in a row you would’ve screamed the fix is in. The league is only helping them because they lost LeBron and are pandering to Dan Gilbert. Outside of your favorite team winning there would’ve been some theory concocted on the lottery being fixed.

Now I’ll be the first one to admit there are a lot of coincidences that have occurred home town kids LeBron and Derrick Rose being selected by the Cavs and Bulls, the Spurs selecting Tim Duncan with the number one pick to play him alongside David Robinson at the end of his career. Yes all these scenarios look fishy, buy no one ever screams fixed, or conspiracy when the number one pick becomes a bust or not the superstar you expect from that selection.

Case and point, Greg Oden, Michael Olowokandi, Kwame Brown, Joe Smith did you scream conspiracy when the team that selected them won the lottery, I doubt it.

And you know how many people would have to keep a secret in order for the NBA to pull off such a feat? Too many, and don’t forget, it’s against the law to rig the lottery, so include that nugget of knowledge and be comfortable knowing that nobody from the league wants to go to jail or pay a hefty federal fine that they’re not going to fix the lottery. Include the fact that accounting firm Ernst and Young are down with the process and they have a reputation to uphold that it would make no sense for them to allow anything fisher to going on. I’m pretty sure there’s no amount of money that the NBA could pay them that would make the risk being worth the reward.

So with all this, can we ease up on the conspiracy talk, no more the lottery is fixed, Suge Knight had 2Pac killed and the second shooter in the grassy knoll? No? Ok, one conspiracy theory at a time.