NBA

Watch An NBA General Manager Imply That Last Night’s Draft Lottery Was Fixed

At last night’s NBA Draft lottery in Secaucus, NJ (Secaucus?), the Cleveland Cavaliers, otherwise known as the saddest team ever, won the number 1 pick. The did this while being represented by Nick Gilbert, the wisecracking owner’s son born with a nerve disorder. It was some compelling TV.

Maybe a little too compelling, according to David Kahn. The general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves (who will be picking second in this year’s draft) was being interviewed after the lottery when he said this.

“This league has a habit, and I am just going to say habit, of producing some pretty incredible story lines,” Kahn said. “Last year it was Abe Pollin’s widow and this year it was a 14-year-old boy and the only thing we have in common is we have both been bar mitzvahed. We were done. I told Kevin: ‘We’re toast.’ This is not happening for us and I was right.”

And here’s video, in case you want some context in the form of body language and facial expressions.

As SB Nation points out, the question isn’t over whether or not Kahn was being serious. If he was, it was only halfway so. The question is whether or not an NBA GM should be implying, jokingly or not, that the league is fixing the lottery (FYI: it’s a touchy subject). And if you are going to (jokingly) imply that, probably best not to do it at the expense of the widow and the 14-year-old kid with neurofibromatosis.