To further contextualize this, the likehood the Hawks won the lottery from the third position last draft was roughly equivalent to winning three hands of rock paper scissors in a row.
But yeah, the more likely thing was that Hasso and the other owners of teams that just came off miserable seasons conspired to forgo drafting the most exciting young propsect since McDavid, and all the excitement and revenue that directly benefits their franchise, because in spite of revenue sharing not really being a thing, Bedard in Chicago would nebulously increase revenues across the league and nominally increase their franchise valuation. Maybe. In the off chance ONE of the owners is looking to sell sometime soon.
To really hammer this home; multiple owners, in unison, elected to guarantee they wouldn’t get Bedard for the possibility of some voodoo trickle down economics over a legit shot at a franchise transforming player and all the accompanying competitive and financial benefits.
Three consecutive hands of rock paper scissors or a bunch of actors conspiring to the benefit of one organization at great peril to the league’s and their own reputation. The only evidence informing this discussion being that a draft lottery took place, with all the odds posted, and the actual lottery tabulations recorded and witnessed by each team.
I cannot stress this enough; as a society we need to do something about how we teach critical thinking skills. That or we need to foster a culture where people are more comfortable being open about their shortcomings, so that we can more readily identify the morons whose opinions should be discounted.
