Was the 1985 NBA draft lottery rigged?
Creased envelope! Frozen envelope!
Watching the NBA Draft Lottery over the weekend (the Atlanta Hawks, against all most odds, got the first pick), I was reminded of the first — and most famous/infamous — draft lottery of all time: 1985.
Prior to 1985, there was no lottery to decide the first pick. The two teams with the worst win-loss records in each conference would simply flip a coin. The winner got the #1 pick. Amazing, right?
But, that system encouraged outright tanking, which the NBA did not want.
So, in 1984, the NBA Board of Governors changed the rules. All non-playoff teams would be entered in the lottery — meaning that they would all have an equal chance at getting the #1 pick.
The timing of the change was not coincidental. The 1985 draft had a clear #1 pick: Patrick Ewing, the dominant center from the Georgetown Hoyas.
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Ewing was unstoppable in college; the Hoyas went 121-23 during his four years there, making the national finals in 1982, 1984 and 1985.
Here are his stats over his college tenure:
As Chris Ballard wrote of Ewing in Sports Illustrated:
To understand just how coveted Patrick Ewing was 30 years ago, you have to forget what you know about the NBA in its current incarnation and return to a time when big men ruled the league. Sure, there existed the odd stretch-four or point-forward—players like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson—but for the most part, positions were determined by height, and size valued above all else. This was the league of Russell and Chamberlain, of Walton and Malone. Get your giant, the thinking went, and then surround him with ball-handling, post-feeding minions.
And not since Lew Alcindor left UCLA in 1969 had there been a giant as dominant as the 7-foot, 240-pound Ewing. In four years at Georgetown, Ewing took the Hoyas to three NCAA finals, winning one. He offered the total package. He could score in the post, defend, rebound and knock down an 18-foot jumper. When TBS superimposed a graphic of strengths on the screen during the 1985 draft broadcast, it read only, are you kidding? In Ewing, teams saw not just talent but salvation: ticket sales, playoff runs and, most of all, relevance. He was, as this magazine put it at the time, possibly “the most recognized athlete ever to enter a major professional league.”
Ewing was widely regarded as a franchise changer. The next big star in the NBA. And, yes, the consensus #1 pick. (He was Victor Wembanyama before Victor Wembanyama!)
Which is why the 1985 draft lottery mattered so much.
And here’s exactly what happened (with NBA Commissioner David Stern playing the lead role):
Notice anything odd? Bill Simmons, then writing for ESPN, did:
When an accountant from Ernst & Whinney throws the seven envelopes into the glass drum, he bangs the fourth one against the side of the drum to create a creased corner (we'll explain why this is relevant in a second). Then he pulls a handle and turns the drum around a couple of times to "mix" the envelopes up….Stern heads over to the drum, unlocks it and awkwardly reaches inside for the first envelope (the No. 1 pick). He grabs three envelopes that are bunched together, pretends not to look (although he does) and flips the three envelopes so the one on the bottom ends up in his hand. Then he pulls that envelope out ... and, of course, it's the Knicks envelope.
Now ...
A reader named Greg K. from Fair Lawn, N.J. (I'd give you his whole name, but I don't want him to be randomly found dead in his bathtub tonight), pointed this out to me: If you look closely right as the commish yanks that Knicks envelope out, there's a noticeable crease in the corner of the envelope. You can see it for a split-second -- as he pulls the envelope up, it's on the corner that's pointing toward the bottom of the jar.
There's a giant crease! It's right there! The same one the accountant created as he was throwing the envelopes into the drum!
So you're telling me that, out of the seven envelopes in that glass drum, during a lottery when the NBA desperately needed the most ballyhooed college center in 15 years to save the league's marquee franchise, the commissioner coincidentally pulled out the envelope with a giant crease in the corner that happened to have the Knicks logo in it?
This video goes into excruciating detail on the “creased envelope” theory:
And that’s not the only conspiracy theory out there about how the Knicks got the first pick!
There is also the frozen envelope theory, which goes like this: The NBA had put the Knicks’ envelope in a freezer before the lottery. So while all the envelopes looked the same to the naked eye, Stern, the commissioner, could feel that the Knicks’ one was far colder — and was able to pick it out.
In 2019, representing the Knicks at the NBA Draft Lottery, Ewing himself joked about it: “Well you know, I’m not sure what’s gonna happen. I’m not sure which envelope is gonna be the cold envelope like everyone always tells me. All I can do is wish them all the best.”
Stern, who died in 2020, was always dismissive of the idea of a Knicks-Ewing conspiracy. “If people want to say that [the lottery was fixed] fine,” Stern said at the time. “As long as they spell our name right. That means they’re interested in us. That’s terrific.”
But, there was at least one high-ranking NBA official who believed it. Stan Kasten, the at the time of the general manager of the Atlanta Hawks, recalled a conversation with several NBA executives months before the ‘85 draft:
“I was sitting with a couple of NBA guys and I remember one high-ranking- team executive, who I will not name, was a million percent convinced of what was going to happen. ‘He’s going to the Knicks,’ he kept saying. ‘He’s going to the Knicks. It’s all arranged. I didn’t believe him at the time.”
So, here’s what we know:
The Knicks, a marquee NBA franchise in the biggest TV market in the country, were terrible the year before the draft. They finished 24-58, last in the conference.
Ewing was a massive star for the Knicks. He was Rookie of the Year in the 1985-1986 season and a multiple time All Star. By the late 1980s — and well into the 1990s — the Knicks were in the playoffs every year, led by Ewing.
The Knicks’ envelope DID bang against the side of the drum — like no other envelope.
Stern DID pick up 3 envelopes, turn them over and then pick the creased one on top.
Do those facts provide conclusive evidence that the NBA rigged the lottery so that the biggest star to enter the NBA in decades would wind up on the Knicks?
Well, no. But, it’s beyond any sort of dispute that the NBA wanted Ewing on the Knicks. And that the lottery system — a bunch of envelopes put into a transparent ball that is then turned 6 times — was ripe for manipulation.
Do I personally think it was rigged? I do. But I have always liked to dabble in conspiracy theories. What do YOU think?
The truth will never be known but, I am in agreement with you, CC! It was rigged!
I am 200% not a conspiracy theorist type of person, but agree with you 200%.