NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was greeted with a loud heckle of “Dallas was rigged” as he opened the 2025 NBA Draft at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Wednesday night. The outburst referred to last month’s draft lottery, when the Dallas Mavericks secured the first overall pick despite holding just a 1.8% chance of winning. Dallas used the pick to select Duke forward Cooper Flagg, intensifying online speculation that the lottery had favored the franchise shortly after it traded star guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. The league has repeatedly said its lottery process is audited and secure, and Silver did not respond to the heckler. The incident comes amid renewed scrutiny of gambling’s influence on basketball. ESPN betting writer David Payne Purdum cautioned that the explosion of individual player-prop markets “potentially incentivize attempts at corruption,” a view echoed by several industry figures who argue that legalized wagering both exposes and deters illicit activity. Those worries follow reports, first detailed by ESPN’s Shams Charania, that Detroit Pistons guard Malik Beasley is under federal investigation over allegedly manipulated prop bets during the 2023-24 season. While supporters of regulated betting say monitoring systems helped flag the irregularities, critics note the NBA’s growing partnerships with sportsbooks complicate perceptions of the league’s integrity.