The NBA SHOULD Rig the Draft Lottery
It is no secret that the NBA has a ratings issue, with viewership down across the board as the league loses further ground to the NFL. I am here with the answer, embracing the art of manufacturing storylines to gain mass public interest.
Think about it, what are the most popular eras in NBA history? The Magic-Bird rivalry, widely credited with saving the league, was founded in an enthralling storyline with massive racial and blue-collar implications that engaged the casual fan who otherwise did not care about basketball. The Jordan era is another, a perfectly-timed supernova that capitalized on the first global campaign from Nike and an athlete that never seemed to fail. Then you have LeBron, a superstar who first emerged at sixteen, somehow exceeded all expectations, and became the most polarizing athlete of the 21st century.
What do all those eras have in common? A story that drew the casual fan in.
With that understanding, the NBA has to embrace the art of manufacturing juicy storylines. And the only way to do that is through the draft lottery, ensuring marquee prospects land in ideal places for public drama.
For example, if I were Adam Silver, I would have done everything in my power to ensure that Cooper Flagg, widely predicted as the first white American selected first in the draft since 1977, ended up with the Utah Jazz, a struggling franchise stereotypically known for having the whitest fanbase in the NBA. With one move, a struggling franchise lands a marquee talent, and the league lays the foundation for a story that could reach across sports media into everyday American life.
It is also worth noting that current Jazz CEO Danny Ainge was teammates with Bird on the 1989 NBA championship team, the last time a caucasian-majority team won the title. That season, 8 of the 12 Boston Celtics who played in the NBA finals were white, a staggering total that has not been matched since.
So, give that CEO the No. 1 pick, let him add Flagg to a team that already has one of the league's prominent white stars in Lauri Markkanen, and you are cooking up the perfect racial storyline to engage every corner of the country, especially given the current political state.
Sending Flagg to Dallas has some commercial benefits if operating under the conspiracy that a promise was made in exchange for agreeing to the most puzzling trade in NBA history. But that storyline pales in what could have happened had the great white hope landed in Utah.
Look no further than what the WNBA just experienced with Caitlin Clark. One player who revolutionized women's basketball viewership, rivaling the NBA finals, just because her story reached across sports into everyday American discussions about race, class, and privilege, attracting millions of casual fans to engage with a league they never would have.
Another example is what we witnessed with the Four Nations Hockey tournament, where millions of new viewers tuned in to watch Canada vs. USA hockey. It was not as if hockey was this brand new sport that people just discovered, what led to the viewership boom was the perfect storm of an international rivalry playing out on the political stage between the Donald Trump Administration and Canada, perfectly timed with a hockey clash between the two nations that saw plenty of engaging and viral moments. That could have been USA vs. Canada badminton, and viewership would have skyrocketed due to the context.
That is what the NBA must embrace: manufacturing and fostering storylines that engage the casual fan.
Tweaking a lottery result here and there is all it would take. The games themselves will still be decided by the players on the court, but behind the scenes, Adam Silver and the league should regularly meddle with the lottery to create the best possible storylines.