“You Want To Play Where It’s Cold Or Where It’s Hot?" - According To Shaq, David Stern Apparently Asked Him Where He Wanted To Play Ahead Of The 1992 Lottery

Nathaniel S. Butler. Getty Images.

For as long as the NBA Lottery has existed (since 1985), there has been speculation/rumors/theories that the entire process is rigged. You may remember that 1985 Draft as the 'Frozen Envelope' theory, which ended up with the Knicks securing Patrick Ewing. From there, you can point to numerous examples of things not exactly passing the smell test when it came to the Lottery, even though the NBA and their media cartel do everything they can to push the idea that there's no possible way it could be rigged. Look, believe what you want. There's logic behind the idea that the NBA would be stupid to do something like that given what would happen if the evidence ever came out, but then again we all see what has transpired throughout the years, so something doesn't quite add up

Given what we just saw in the 2025 Lottery with the Dallas Mavericks winning the Cooper Flagg Sweepstakes immediately after their disaster Luka trade, only having a 1.8% chance to land the top spot, the entire value of that franchise being in the shitter given the fanbase was openly revolting against it, things never felt more rigged. It was a page right out of the WWE playbook, and it was no surprise that it felt like the media went into overdrive to try and kill that speculation, but again, given the history of this system, it's hard to really believe that spinzone.

Enter Shaq. 

Now with all these stories, you should definitely take things with a gigantic grain of salt, but it's hard to think everything is on the level when you hear Shaq talk about how things went down for him back in 1992

Here's the thing about that 1992 Lottery. It wasn't totally out of the realm of possibility that the Magic would win the #1 pick. This wasn't exactly a Dallas Mavericks situation where the Magic only had a 1.8% chance. Their odds were actually pretty good

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But go back to what Shaq is suggesting, that David Stern asked him

"You want to play where it’s cold or where it’s hot?"

Why does that matter? Well look who had slightly higher odds. The Minnesota Timberwolves. Let me ask you, how's the weather in the Twin Cities? Pretty cold right? Wrong. Cold as fuck. I have friends from college who are born and raised in MIN and live there to this day, and they send me videos of them throwing boiling water into the air in the middle of winter and instantly it turns to snow/powder. They tell me stories about how you can't even open your eyes when you go outside because your tear ducts immediately freeze. Sounds miserable, but then they say the summers make it worth it. Yeah, OK. Whatever you say.

My thing is this. Why would Shaq make this story up? What would be the motivation? He's Shaq. He doesn't need to "go viral" or anything like that by making something like this up. Maybe it's because I'm choosing to believe in something, but would this surprise anyone? Given what we've seen all throughout the history of the Lottery? 

Remember, in 1992 the Magic were still in the infancy stage as a franchise. They were created in 1989-90, and had won 18, 31, and 21 games before Shaq arrived (immediately bumped them to 41 wins, then 50 wins the next season and their first playoff birth). You don't think David Stern was in the business of making sure one of his new franchises had a generational talent to get them going? Shaq told him he wanted to play in a warm city and it just so happened that the Magic were a new franchise in a warm city that needed a franchise talent?

In Year 2 after drafting Shaq, the Magic drafted Penny Hardaway. In Year 3 with Shaq, they made the NBA Finals. The 90s Magic were basically a cultural icon. It didn't matter who you rooted for, if you were an NBA fan we all had the Magic starter jacket/team basketball that they would pass out at basketball camps all across the country. Outside of the Bulls, you could make the case that those Magic teams were THE team of the 90s.

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You know who probably loved that? David Stern and the league office. 

So if you want to call bullshit on Shaq's story, that's your right. There's a chance this is all nonsense that he's floating out here just to ride the "NBA Lottery is rigged" train, and seeing as how David Stern isn't exactly around to confirm or deny any of this, I get being skeptical.

But I'm choosing to believe. Things just align in a way where it's not totally crazy to think something like that conversation happened, and given everything that's happened since 1992 when it comes to shady Lottery results, I tend to believe Shaq here