Before the NBA draft lottery results were announced on Tuesday evening, ex-Philadelphia 76ers star center Dikembe Mutombo had already tweeted a congratulatory message to his former team on earning the No. 1 pick.
A few hours later, who got the top selection? You guessed it, the Sixers.
Predictably, this sent conspiracy theorists into a frenzy, claiming that the draft order was rigged and predetermined before any lottery balls are ever selected.
In spite of what it may look like, nothing fishy is going on, according to NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
My response is that clearly it was an accident. The team with the greatest likelihood to win the lottery was preparing under the likelihood that they did win. . . . But I have no questions whatsoever about the integrity of the lottery.
They were preparing in the hope that they won and Dikembe accidentally sent a tweet out. What are you going to do?
Mutombo has spent the last day doing some damage control, stating that the tweet was a mistake. The 76ers have backed this up as well, saying they sent an email to Dikembe asking him to tweet if they got the top pick and giving him several pre-written tweets to choose from, one of which he accidentally sent out early.
So there you have it, nothing to see here!
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