Draft Lottery fuels wild Mavericks conspiracy theory fans clung to for months

When the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, fans were searching for reasons as to why Nico Harrison would make this decision.

Why would Harrison trade Doncic less than a year after making the NBA Finals? Why did Harrison settle on a return package that only included one first-round pick when Doncic is a generational talent?

None of it made sense, no matter how hard fans tried to break the trade down, and conspiracy theories immediately started flying after the trade. Fans thought the team traded Doncic to tank the Mavs' value to later move to Las Vegas, but the conspiracy theory that made the most sense just picked off some wild steam after the results of the NBA Draft Lottery dropped on Monday night.

NBA conspiracy theory just came true with Mavs landing first pick

The Mavericks officially secured the No. 1 pick and the chance to draft Cooper Flagg, and truly, this was the only way to make up for the Doncic trade. Dallas only had a 1.8 percent chance to secure the No. 1 pick, and the impossible happened.

This wild series of events feeds directly into the theory that the Mavericks traded Doncic to the Lakers to help with NBA ratings, and in return, the NBA would gift Dallas the No. 1 pick and the chance to draft Flagg. Doncic would help make the most popular franchise in NBA history relevant for years to come, while the Mavericks would gain an exciting prospect to lead them through the post-Doncic era.

This would mean that the NBA was rigged if this theory were true, removing all integrity of the game, but the juice surrounding this theory gained tons of steam on Monday night.

No one expected the Mavericks to do the impossible and win the lottery, and with Rolando Blackman representing the team, they pulled off the impossible. Flagg's presence alone will help get Mavericks fans flooding back into the American Airlines Center again, and this is the one thing that one of the most loyal fanbases in the NBA desperately needed after going through the roughest three months in franchise history.

Flagg is one of the most exciting prospects this league has ever seen, and adding him next to Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis will make Mavericks basketball exciting again. There will now be tons of chatter surrounding both the Mavericks and Lakers, and rather than crumbling into irrelevance after the Doncic trade, Dallas is back on the map.

Fans will get the chance to see their wild conspiracy the first time in October when the Mavericks meet the Lakers in October for a preseason game, and the fact that this game has already been rumored fuels the theory even more. A preseason game will have everyone in America glued to their TVs to watch Doncic's Lakers play Davis, Irving, Flagg, and the Mavs, and Dallas earning the No. 1 pick in the draft will have everyone talking about the NBA again heading into next season.

Doncic being traded to the Lakers and the Mavericks winning the Flagg sweepstakes are two events that make perfect sense for the ratings conspiracy theory, and things fell into place on Monday. The NBA is obviously not rigged, as that would tank the league for eternity, but Dallas winning the draft lottery will only make skeptical fans even more skeptical.