Pablo Torre reports that some owners believe the NBA rigged the 2025 lottery in favor of the Mavericks.

Pablo Torre says two NBA owners privately questioned whether the 2025 Draft lottery was truly random, suggesting they were uneasy about Adam Silver’s role in the process.

The Dallas Mavericks experienced one of the wildest seasons in league history in 2025. Their general manager shocked the basketball world by trading away franchise cornerstone Luka Dončić, only for the team to dramatically reverse its fortunes by winning the NBA Draft lottery.

That general manager, Nico Harrison, has since been dismissed, with new ownership deciding that granting him complete control had been a costly error.

Still, the franchise had already secured a major lifeline by landing the chance to select Duke standout Cooper Flagg — a generational talent who has already made a huge impact as a 19-year-old rookie.

The dramatic turnaround from losing Dončić to drafting Flagg felt almost unbelievable.

Appearing on the Chapo Trap House podcast, investigative journalist Pablo Torre revealed that some league owners privately believe Dallas’ lottery win may not have been purely luck.

“I was at an event the day after the lottery and spoke with two NBA owners,” Torre said. “Both of them told me, ‘This was obviously fixed.’”

Torre clarified that he was relaying their suspicions rather than making an accusation himself, noting that even inside league circles there were raised eyebrows about how events unfolded from the Dončić trade to lottery night.

“I’m saying literally two NBA owners did not trust the hand of Adam Silver to remain out of the proceedings, in terms of rigging the NBA Draft lottery,” Torre added.

Since 2019, the NBA has adjusted its lottery system to flatten the odds. The three worst teams now share equal chances at the No. 1 pick, while other lottery teams have slightly improved probabilities.

That structure has produced multiple surprises in recent years. Dallas won the 2025 lottery despite holding just a 1.8 percent chance, and the Atlanta Hawks captured the 2024 top pick with only 3 percent odds in what was considered a weaker draft class.

As for Torre’s sources, their reaction mirrored that of many observers. Rival executives often vent frustrations after unexpected outcomes, and Torre happened to hear from two owners immediately following Dallas’ unlikely win.

“I’ll tell you that I remember I was at an event and I spoke to two NBA owners. This was the day after the NBA lottery. And those two owners were both like, this was obviously fixed.” – @PabloTorre on Dallas winning the draft lottery

Via Chapo Trap House: https://t.co/Mskn1D21Jd pic.twitter.com/AGNHOrhwca

— Dru (@dru_star) February 18, 2026

Even so, it’s rare for a struggling team with ultra-wealthy new ownership to receive such a transformative stroke of fortune. While Dallas now embraces a promising future with Flagg, skepticism lingers across parts of the league about how the Mavericks ended up in this position.