Trueblood
Bench
Ironically, a lot of those players have a large role with the NBAPA. They'll take their digs at the league whenever possible.
While it's physically impossible to rig the lottery, fans also forget how many people are in the room when the lottery is determined. There are lawyers, security people and reps from every franchise. You may be able to pull the wool over one person's eyes but not 50.
The previous posters pretty much have it correct but I'll go a bit further. The 1,000 number combinations that are assigned to the various teams are physically placed on a large board in the back room. They aren't in some computer where Stern can just access some lottery rigging software. This is important because they are up there in written form, not electronic, long before the balls are picked out of a hopper. This way, Stern can't just electronically switch the number combos without someone seeing him do it.
From there, the balls come out of the hopper. Everyone in the room gets to touch each ball to make sure none of them are weighted or engineered to come out of the hopper quicker, if that is even possible in the first place.
No station in their right mind would televise this as it's arguably the most boring idea for television and as other posters have noted, it would take all the fun out because we would find out the first pick first and then so on as opposed to reverse order which makes for why the lottery is so fun to watch. Proving that there is no fix is easy when people are in a room and can touch and monitor the balls and the board all at once. Doing it on TV is trickier because a camera would have to pan over all 1,000 number combos to prove that they are all different and even then, nobody could touch the balls to make sure they all weigh the same and what not.
That being said, they should upload it to the internet. Maybe even NBA.com could do it since they are the organization with the credibility at stake. Maybe don't upload it until the actual national tv version is finished and then if someone wants to waste 2 hours of their life watching on the net, they will now have that option.
While it's physically impossible to rig the lottery, fans also forget how many people are in the room when the lottery is determined. There are lawyers, security people and reps from every franchise. You may be able to pull the wool over one person's eyes but not 50.
The previous posters pretty much have it correct but I'll go a bit further. The 1,000 number combinations that are assigned to the various teams are physically placed on a large board in the back room. They aren't in some computer where Stern can just access some lottery rigging software. This is important because they are up there in written form, not electronic, long before the balls are picked out of a hopper. This way, Stern can't just electronically switch the number combos without someone seeing him do it.
From there, the balls come out of the hopper. Everyone in the room gets to touch each ball to make sure none of them are weighted or engineered to come out of the hopper quicker, if that is even possible in the first place.
No station in their right mind would televise this as it's arguably the most boring idea for television and as other posters have noted, it would take all the fun out because we would find out the first pick first and then so on as opposed to reverse order which makes for why the lottery is so fun to watch. Proving that there is no fix is easy when people are in a room and can touch and monitor the balls and the board all at once. Doing it on TV is trickier because a camera would have to pan over all 1,000 number combos to prove that they are all different and even then, nobody could touch the balls to make sure they all weigh the same and what not.
That being said, they should upload it to the internet. Maybe even NBA.com could do it since they are the organization with the credibility at stake. Maybe don't upload it until the actual national tv version is finished and then if someone wants to waste 2 hours of their life watching on the net, they will now have that option.
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