College hoops fans react to resurfaced clip of Cooper Flagg sporting Mavericks shirt: "Rigged in the making"
Duke Blue Devils star Cooper Flagg had a tremendous freshman season in college. He lived up to the hype he had as a recruit and led the Blue Devils in scoring with 19.2 points per game. He did this even though the team has two other players, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach, who are projected to be top 10 picks in the 2025 NBA draft.
As a result of his stellar season, Flagg is projected to be the No. 1 selection in the upcoming draft. He is one of the most highly regarded prospects in recent years. So, there were many eyes on the draft lottery in Chicago on Monday night. After months of waiting, it was determined that the Dallas Mavericks would pick first in the 2025 NBA draft.
The Mavericks winning the lottery was a huge shock, as they qualified for the play-in tournament and only had a 1.8% chance of winning. It also upset many fans, as they did not like seeing Dallas getting rewarded with the first pick after trading Luka Doncic. However, Mavericks fans were certainly happy, especially when an old photo of Cooper Flagg sporting a Mavericks shirt was posted on Wednesday.
This added to speculation that the draft was rigged for the Mavs. Shortly after the image was posted on the SportsCenter Next Instagram account, fans reacted in the comments.
"Rigged in the making," one fan wrote.
"'It's not rigged,'" another commented sarcastically.
"So that was the deal the league made with the lakers and mavs," one fan added.
Fans continued to claim the draft lottery was rigged in the comments.
"There we go with this bullsh*t," one fan wrote.
"Nico is gonna trade him for Austin Rivers," another commented.
"This shi got to be rigged," one fan added.
Why are fans upset that Cooper Flagg is going to Dallas?
Most fans are upset that the Dallas Mavericks won the draft lottery because they traded away Luka Doncic this season. The narrative is that general manager Nico Harrison did not show loyalty to the team's young superstar in Doncic, and as a result, they do not deserve to draft another young star in Cooper Flagg.
Fans are calling the draft lottery rigged because of the conspiracy theory that the Mavs agreed to trade Doncic to the LA Lakers, the NBA's biggest market, in exchange for the first pick in the draft. This is all speculation on the part of fans.