" [Stern] says to me, 'Hey, can't wait for you to come to the NBA ,'" O'Neal said on Ashley Nevel's podcast. "Then he pulled me off to the side. 'You want to play where it's cold or where it's hot?' He asked me that.

Shaquille O’Neal only did more to fan the flames of the NBA draft conspiracy theorists with a David Stern story from his draft year in 2992. around him landing first overall to the Magic in 1992. The idea of a “rigged” NBA draft lottery resurfaced last month when the Mavericks won the top pick in the draft — almost certainly Duke star Cooper Flagg — despite having a 1.

The Dallas Mavericks won the NBA draft lottery on Monday evening—just months after shockingly trading Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers—and sent conspiracy theorists into a tizzy, not dissimilar to the response after the New York Knicks won the inaugural lottery back in 1985 and ultimately selected Patrick Ewing.