LeBron accuses league of jobbing Nuggets out of first pick in 2003 NBA Draft

In the 2002-03 NBA season, both the Denver Nuggets and the Cleveland Cavaliers had the worst records in the NBA, going 17-65. In that era, the NBA Draft Lottery worked a lot differently than it does today. Both Denver and Cleveland had the same odds of getting the No. 1 overall draft pick that year at 22.5%.

The top overall pick that year was without a doubt LeBron James, the high school prodigy that grew up just 30 minutes outside of Cleveland in Akron, Ohio. He had elected to not go to college and instead go directly from high school to the NBA.

Many people, and possibly the NBA, wanted James to stay home in Cleveland because it would be a way better story than if he went west to Denver. Who doesn’t love a good story?

When James appeared on The Pat McAfee show this week, he spoke about his feelings going through his mind when the ping pong balls were being selected to determine the order of the 2003 NBA Draft.

“Listen man … during the lottery … Cleveland got the No. 1 pick? I just don’t think that was — what a coincidence huh? Let’s keep LeBron home,” James said. “You know what? Patrick Ewing to the Knicks, you know, Derrick Rose to the Bulls. Like, I understand the assignment guys …”

Ewing to the Knicks is the result of the 1985 Draft Lottery in which New York jumped up two spots to the first pick. This was the first time the league had a lottery to determine the draft order, and it is widely regarded that the lottery was rigged in order to bring Ewing to the Big Apple. Similar to James, he was undoubtedly the No. 1 pick and had the tools to change the course of a franchise.

James also mentioned Derrick Rose, who was selected by the Chicago Bulls with the first pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. The Bulls were the ninth team in the pre-lottery projection, and jumped a whopping eight spots to the top pick to select the kid who grew up in Chicago. Coincidence? James doesn’t think so.

Going back to 2003, the Denver Nuggets dropped a singular spot to third overall, slotting them in to pick Carmelo Anthony out of Syracuse. While this was not a bad pick by any means for Denver, as Anthony led the Nuggets to the playoffs every year he was in Denver, he didn’t bring to Denver what James brought to Cleveland.

If the lottery was actually rigged like James hinted at, how much did it actually change for the Denver Nuggets? There’s no guarantee they would’ve gotten the top pick in a ‘fair’ lottery, that’s the whole point of holding one. The best odds don’t always equate to success, as seen with many other lotteries in which the worst team in the league didn’t end up with the top selection.

What if Denver got the second overall pick instead of the third? Would they have drafted Darko Milicic instead of Anthony? That would’ve panned out much worse for Denver, as Milicic’s career flopped immediately out of the gates.

At the end of the day, no one will be able to tell whether or not that lottery was rigged. Cleveland ended up with James in a feel-good story while Denver got Anthony. However, when the guy who was the top pick slightly nods his head at the lottery potentially being rigged, it’s a slight gut punch to Nuggets fans who thought they had a chance to bring the kid from Akron to Denver.