nba lottery (fixed)

sports:  I am not about to say that the NBA draft lottery is fixed.  It just seems to damning to even consider such a thing.  After all, the lottery was put in place to give every team that doesn't make the playoffs a fair chance to improve and compete.  Also, it would be a bigger scandal than Tim Donaghy fixing games with bad calls.  The past two seasons, though, certainly raise a fair amount of suspicion given the storylines of the two teams that have won the number one overall pick.
This year, despite being historically bad, and by that I mean having the worst winning percentage in NBA history, the Charlotte Bobcats failed to obtain the number one pick.  They did get the second pick.  It seems, however, that the drop off between potential great Anthony Davis and all around solid players like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Thomas Robinson exists.  So while Charlotte can improve, they are not getting the necessary talent to build and grow from the cellar dwelling team they are.
Instead the top pick went to the New Orleans Hornets (Freudian slip as I almost typed Charlotte, I love irony on accident).  While the Hornets landing the top pick doesn't have the conspiracy of possibly the Nets - giving Jay-Z and the Russian mob the top pick so they can move the Nets to Brooklyn in style instead of while sucking and not being able to retain their only star, Derron Williams, because they suck - it is pretty heavy handed top pick team.  For the past couple of seasons New Orleans has been owned by the league itself.  It was sold recently to the owners of the Saints, the New Orleans football team.  On top of the seemingly sweet welcome to the league present the league gave the new owner there is another factor.  The NBA was suppose to be acting as an impartial party as owner of a struggling franchise in New Orleans.  Then, before the start of this season, it inexplicably vetoed a three way trade that would have sent Chris Paul, then playing for the Hornets, to the Lakers.  The Hornets would have received a handful of role players from the Houston Rockets as part of the trade that would have made the team instantly younger and better and would have given them pieces to build around for the future.  Instead David Stern vetoed the trade and allowed Paul to go to the Clippers while New Orleans got a few decent pieces such as Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman who would need a ton of help moving forward.  What a better way for Stern to say sorry for his insane veto on a trade, that made sense for a team that the league itself owned which clearly played into the factor of the veto, than to award them the top pick in the upcoming draft.
On top of all the insanity i just spouted about the Hornets, you also have last years number one pick.  That went to the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Granted, the Cavs really seemed like they needed the help after a season where they set the record for most consecutive losses.  The failures of the Cavs last season were totally overshadowed by the fact that they had gotten screwed in such unimaginable and painful ways by Lebron James the previous off season when he had "The Decision" and bailed not only on his teammates but his home state where he was building something special to play in Miami.  After the punishment Cavs fans got from James, they had to have walked around sore and unable to sit down for a week.  Just a classless screwing in a bad place for all.  Then, bad season or not, the Cavs get the top pick in the draft and the chance to rebuild all that James left in total shambles.  David Stern:  "Sorry you had to go through that Dan Gilbert."
Look, I stand by what I said at the beginning of this post:  I am not saying the lottery is fixed.  But if you are a conspiracy theorist, these past two years have certainly made you have a ton of fun.  They have also looked bad for the league.  Not bad because teams that needed help didn't get it.  Lord knows, New Orleans and Cleveland need(ed) all the help they can get.  But in a league where there have been referee scandals and the term "star treatment" is a common phrase, having two straight years of surprisingly convenient and apologetic top picks just gives people (like me obviously) something to talk about.