By DaVince “Dino” Wright
The Top Pick
While making the world’s greatest footlong hoagie, I was watching the NBA lottery draft right before the NBA’s Eastern conference playoffs. I was surprised that the Dallas Mavericks were in the drawing. Keep in mind that Dallas made the NBA play-in series by securing the 10th and final spot this season. Here’s my case: Dallas fell into the top 3 right before the commercial break. I turned to my Uncle Curtis and said, “Wouldn’t it be hilarious to see Dallas get the number 1 spot!” Uncle Curtis looked at me and said, “What if they do? You know Cooper Flagg is coming out and he will be the top pick!”
The last time the Mavericks picked number one was back in 1981 when they took Mark Aguirre from DePaul University. The Mavericks got the top spot beating out the Spurs at number 2 and 76ers at 3. The Mavericks hold all the cards right now. Duke’s forward Cooper Flagg will be a Maverick barring Dallas trades out of the spot or basically gives it away. Dallas has only one pick in rounds 1 and 2, so they can’t possibly blow this! Cooper Flagg was the national Player of the Year as a freshman averaging 19.2 points per game, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists while shooting 48.1% from the floor. He is a generational talent that can flourish in the Mavericks organization with Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.
The Conspiracy Theory
This will be one for the history books! In my mind, the Dallas Mavericks knew that they would get the number 1 pick in this year’s draft because they gave up Luka to the Lakers. History repeated itself when this happened. I feel that after the trade, the NBA promised the Mavericks that they will be taken care of. Many fans are saying that the Lakers needed a superstar because LA is the flagship of the NBA. LeBron will be on the way out and LA needed a star to keep ratings up for the next 5 to 6 years, so Luka will become the face of the team and league. If you go all the way back to 2011 when the Pelicans traded PG Chris Paul to the Clippers, the Pelicans got the #1 pick and took Anthony Davis from Kentucky. In 2019, Anthony Davis was traded to LA from New Orleans and the Pelicans took Duke’s forward Zion Williamson at number 1. In 2025, the Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to LA for Anthony Davis and others and won the top pick in the 2025. So, if you go all the way back to 1985, Rick Welts (Maverick’s president and CEO) was on the NBA draft committee, and everyone said that he rigged the draft so the New York Knicks could draft Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing at number 1. It seems to me that every time a generational star has been traded to any Los Angeles team, the team that traded away their star has been rewarded with the number one pick in the NBA draft. Is it a coincidence? A conspiracy? Just facts? It’s up to you to figure it out.
