Shaq recently told a story that suggests the NBA Draft lottery was rigged when he ended up with the Orlando Magic.

" [Stern] says to me, 'Hey, can't wait for you to come to the NBA ,'" O'Neal said on Ashley Nevel's podcast. "Then he pulled me off to the side. 'You want to play where it's cold or where it's hot?' He asked me that.

The Nets future has been dramatically dimmed in just a few short weeks, thanks in large part to the NBA Draft Lottery.

NBA draft lottery on Monday revealed the final order with teams vying for players such as Cooper Flagg. See the lottery results:

Coward, a Duke commitment, and Maxime Raynaud are climbing, while Liam McNeeley's and Jase Richardson's stock slips

The NBA draft lottery has seemingly always been ripe with conspiracy theories. We can go back to 1985 and the various stories of a frozen envelope that led to the Knicks getting Patrick Ewing.

Shaquille O’Neal only did more to fan the flames of the NBA draft conspiracy theorists with a David Stern story around him landing first overall to the Magic in 1992.

The lottery system is how the NBA determines the draft order for the teams that don’t make the playoffs. It only determines the first 14 picks of the draft and has no impact on the second round. The first four picks are determined by the lottery, and picks 5-14 are determined by the reverse standings of whoever is left.

The Hornets landed the No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, dashing any dreams of capturing top prospect Cooper Flagg. But according to new President of Basketball Operations Jeff Peterson, the team’s draft board is still rich with talent.

NBA Draft Lottery, the Brooklyn Nets' 'ethical tanking' strategy was rewarded with the eighth overall selection. They enterred with the sixth-bes