MANILA, Philippines – The Philadelphia 76ers struck gold in the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery by winning the first overall pick, giving the maligned franchise some good fortune moving forward following years of turbulent seasons.
However, some are claiming that Philadelphia was hand-picked to win the lottery and are calling it a conspiracy after one of the franchise’s most decorated big men, Dikembe Mutombo, congratulated the 76ers for receiving the number one pick, hours before the lottery even started.
Mutombo deleted the social media post after, but screenshots were taken:
{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NBA great Dikembe Mutombo tweets that the 76ers grabbed this year's #1 draft pick, then quickly deletes the message <a href="https://t.co/4OG455zyJj">pic.twitter.com/4OG455zyJj</a></p>— Rappler Sports (@RapplerSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapplerSports/status/732674794261340160">May 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> {/source}
Even a current Philadelphia player, big man Joel Embiid, was left tweeting “#What”:
{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/What?src=hash">#What</a> <a href="https://t.co/FDPgusa6t2">pic.twitter.com/FDPgusa6t2</a></p>— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoelEmbiid/status/732677769398788097">May 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> {/source}
For his part, Mutombo sent an apology tweet and explained that he “got ahead” of himself:
{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sorry, guys.Got excited about the <a href="https://twitter.com/Sixers">@sixers</a> odds and got ahead of myself.Still keeping my fingers crossed for tonight. <a href="https://t.co/u6bFaNTJml">pic.twitter.com/u6bFaNTJml</a></p>— Dikembe Mutombo (@officialmutombo) <a href="https://twitter.com/officialmutombo/status/732681253091201028">May 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> {/source}
It’s possible what really happened is how Mutombo explained it: that he got excited and made a mistake with his words. It could also be that Mutombo saved a draft of an image of him together with Hall-of-Famer Allen Iverson in case Philadelphia did win for later posting.
However, the fact that the 76ers were handed the top pick hours later only strengthened claims of a conspiracy.
The last time the 76ers had a #1 pick, the franchise chose Iverson who became a league MVP and, together with Mutombo, led Philadelphia to an NBA Finals appearance in 2001. – Rappler.com