Bill Simmons (and basically everyone else) believes that the 1985 NBA draft lottery was fixed to give the NY Knicks the first pick in the draft, and thus Patrick Ewing. Well, proof (sorta) comes from YouTube video of the draft (copyright law? what copyright law?). By the way, who is keeping these videos of NBA drafts from 20 years ago?
Here’s what you have to look out for in the following video:
4:50 – The E&Y accountant who, we’ve just been told, has no idea which envelope contains which logos, while putting them in the drum, bangs one (just one) envelope against the side, thus creating a crease.
5:29 – David Stern pretends to randomly select an envelope by throwing around a few. But notice very carefully that the one he chooses has a crease in the corner. Yes folks, the envelope containing the Knicks logo.
Holy crap! It’s not definitive proof but it’s pretty good evidence don’t you think? Now, if only we had some audio of David Stern telling Dick Bavetta to make sure the Lakers beat the Kings in game 6 of the 2002 playoffs…