That was like 8 years after Shaq left....

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I know. What is your point?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Why would the NBA wait 8 years to help land Orlando another star Center?

Why not rig it in 98 so they could have gotten Michael Olakowandi (sp?)

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Ask David Stern.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

That's like saying the NBA rigged the lottery for the Bucks to get Andrew Bogut because Lew Alcindor left 30 years before that.

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Howard was probably the biggest can't miss NBA big guy since Shaq. You could tell he was going to be a dominating player like Shaq. The only knock on him was his "intensity".

Bogut and Olowakandi do not compare.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The point is that this is another example of you trying to stretch anything to make it fit this was 8 years later and alot of experts thought emeka was the much better pick. Orlando was actually ripped for taking dwight at the time by many this was nowhere close to lebron or ewing.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

It's simply another example of the "luck" that is associated with this process which is intentionally secretive. I don't know why you and douchebag seem to be taking it as I'm saying "Dwight Howard to the Magic means the NBA draft is fixed!". I'm not. I'm saying that the best big man prospect since Shaq just so happened to make it to a team currently watching a former player have a hall of fame career. I brought up 3 other examples but for whatever reason those were ignored.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

In being consistent with my caricature, I totally believe that the NBA draft lottery is rigged. 25 years ago that envelope was bent weighted or SOMETHING so when David Stern reached in the spinner thingy the RIGHT franchise was set up with being relevant for the next ~15 years.

Nowadays, it's all done with some law firm overlooking the results, and I don't think they even show the drawings anymore... they've turned it into a primetime spectacle where they bring out widows and leper children to provide a built-in feelgood story for the winning franchises.

It's been a long-standing concept that the NBA likes to punish teams that finish dead last because they want these teams to know that a February game between teams with .400 winning percentages MEANS something, cuz staying out of the gutter is the key to getting "rewarded" with the #1 pick. Sometimes they'll outright build franchises like they did by setting up Charlotte in the early 90s (I think in a 3 year window they had two #1 picks and a #2 pick, resulting in Kendall Gill, Larry Johnson, and Alonzo Mourning) and Cleveland in 2003 (Lebron) and then the biggest thank-you of all time, Derrick Rose to the Bulls in 2008. The NBA had a small window to take a team in NBA hell and put it over the top by allowing it to get a bonafide franchise player when it looked like they'd be mired in relative suck for another decade, and suffice to say I'm quite pleased with the results, especially when you consider that I have to confess I was a Beasley guy in 2008.

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Rick I just am assuming you are typing faster than you're processing things. Why are you trying to say Dwight was a better prospect than Duncan? Many didn't think he was a better prospect than emeka

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

The Twolves have never had a first round pick from the lottery ever.

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To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Ummm....

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Duncan was probably better too. That still doesn't change the point.

You can stop saying that many didn't think he was a better prospect than Emeka. That's true of virtually every #1 pick. Even Lebron had a few people say that Carmelo may be the better choice. Go read the draft profiles of Howard. Most of them say he's a potential superstar and has by far the highest upside. Most of the Emeka stuff comes from a win now strategy with McGrady.

Anyways, Howard to the Magic was only a small part of the original statement. The NBA draft is filled with "lucky bounces". This was one of them. State lotteries can show the results live on television but the NBA can't figure out how to make the results free of any chance of impropriety.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Noone semi intelligent was suggesting not taking lebron. Many scouts said he would've gone over Yao the year before that as a junior in hs

There was considerable more risk to the dwight pick

There's no real reason to believe it's rigged

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

You are having a hard time understanding my points in this thread or you are choosing to ignore most of it.

No reason? There are multiple reasons to believe it. If it's not good enough for you that's fine. However, there is some smoke there.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Not sure if theyre intelligent. But after Carmello went thru March Madness I remember a lot of ESPN talking heads debating it and some were leaning toward Carmello.


How could there be a real reason, short of the NBA getting caught or admitting it?


They certainly dont help things with the secrecy.

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After the tournament some idiots like skip bayless said stuff like that. But all the scouts agreed that as a prospect they weren't even comparable really

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

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