Did the Philadelphia 76ers agree to become the first NBA team with ads on their jerseys in exchange for the No. 1 pick?
There isn’t an event that quite brings out the conspiracy theorists like the NBA Draft Lottery. These conspiracies don’t come without good reason however and there’s always a plausible theory surrounding each team that wins the No. 1 overall pick each year.
The theories are already brewing before the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery has even begun on Tuesday night. The team with the best odds, the Philadelphia 76ers, have had plenty of rumors swirling about that they will end up with the No. 1 pick in the draft.
Things got amplified when Joel Embiid tweeted out about having the No. 1 and No. 4 pick in the draft. While his approach was more jesting, Dikembe Mutombo would tweet out a congratulations to the team on the No. 1 pick. This further enraged conspiracy theorists and he would end up deleting the tweet.
However, if the 76ers are going to end up winning the lottery, there seems like there could be another way a fix was in the works. On Monday, the 76ers became the first team in the NBA and the first team in the four main professional sports in the United States to agree to having ads on their jerseys.
Now, going back and examining each first round pick in history, there seems to have been some sort of “deal” between the league and the team that ended up with the top pick. While it’s all rumor, each of these are plausible as detailed by ProBasketballTalk writer Dan Feldman.
Taking the plunge of selling advertisements on the uniforms is certainly a big deal and it’s no coincidence that the 76ers could be the first team to do it and possibly end up with the top pick in the draft.
Was there a deal made that if they put ads on their jerseys they would end up with the pick? We’ll never know, but if the 76ers win the lottery, it’s a theory that will stand throughout the course of history.
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