CHICAGO — Rick Welts was there, 40 years to the date earlier, when the NBA draft lottery got started. He worked for the league then and was in the room when that first one took place.
And it seems he has spent much of the four decades since debunking the rumors that the 1985 lottery was rigged so the New York Knicks would get Patrick Ewing.
Given all the extraordinary measures — including witnesses, accountants, videotaping of the event — that goes into running such a thing, it’s reasonable to conclude that the 2025 lottery wasn’t fixed, either.
But it might fix the Dallas Mavericks.
“The fun starts now,” Welts, the team’s CEO, said Monday night after the Mavs won this year’s lottery and got the chance to draft Duke phenom Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 overall pick next month.
More accurately, perhaps, the fun resumes now — after a few months that were anything but fun.
Flagg worked out at the combine in Chicago on Tuesday, going through some shooting and sprinting drills as well as getting measured. He is scheduled for a news conference in Chicago on Wednesday.
If Dallas selects Flagg — it’s difficult to think there’s any other option at this point — he would join a team that currently has two other former Duke players in Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively.
“I think Cooper would be incredible there,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer told ESPN at the ACC’s spring meetings in Amelia Island, Florida. “It’s crazy. We never talked about Dallas. It’s amazing how things work out. It would be an incredible spot for him.”
The Mavs were a ton of fun not that long ago. At this time last year, they were making their way to the NBA Finals. Luka Doncic was a star in a city that, sorry Cowboys, isn’t just a football town anymore and hasn’t been for some time. Irving was dazzling.
And then, well, everyone knows what happened.
The Mavericks stunned the league by pulling off a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers, sending Doncic to be teammates with LeBron James and bringing back Anthony Davis in return. It was like general manager Nico Harrison’s first name had been officially changed to Fire, since that’s all the Mavs heard from their fans for weeks: “Fire Nico, fire Nico, fire Nico.” Players kept getting hurt — Irving tore his ACL about a month after the trade — and hope was realistically gone. Dallas made the play-in tournament, but not the playoffs.
“Honestly, there hasn’t been a lot of fun around the Mavericks for the past three months,” Welts sad. “So, I think for everybody in the organization, from (team governor) Patrick Dumont to Nico Harrison, to coach (Jason) Kidd, to all of our staff, I guess it’s been a lot to carry the last three months. And to have this happen, it’s unbelievable.”
Welts returned to Dallas on Tuesday, still holding the envelope with the No. 1 on it, amid cheers from others when he walked into the building. A couple of people threw confetti, and everybody was applauding.
“You guys have a good night?” Welts asked, fully aware of the answer.
Dumont, who also has taken criticism for allowing Harrison to trade Doncic, wasn’t watching the lottery in real time. He was getting updates from former governor Mark Cuban, who called to say the Mavs jumped into the top four and, he thinks, then to say that the Mavs won. Turns out, Dumont isn’t exactly sure what Cuban said — Cuban was evidently screaming pretty loudly and pretty excitedly.
“Listen, everyone, including Patrick, has been through a lot the past three months,” Welts said. “You know, this is just such a moment of exhilaration, breath of fresh air for the franchise that you really feel like we get a fresh start.”
Welts had been telling any friend who would listen in recent weeks that the Mavs were going to win the lottery. He had no way of knowing, obviously. But the only problem he could foresee after the lottery ended was finding the time to return hundreds of congratulatory text messages.
A good problem to have, indeed. The 1985 lottery, he’ll never forget. Same goes for the 2025 one.
“I have a lot of stories about that one,” Welts said of 1985. “But I’m going to remember this one more.”
Story by Tim Reynolds, Associated Press
