LeBron s "No. 1 Gravity": The NBA Destiny script behind the 1.8% Miracle

The Smile of the Wheel of Fate: When the 1.8% probability meets LeBron's gravity

The NBA draft draw on May 13, 2024, the Dallas Mavericks' logo was slowly opened by league vice president Mark Tatum, the entire basketball world held its breath - a 1.8% probability, the No. 1 pick. The camera swept across the Mavericks' management's astonished face, as if even they themselves could not believe that fate had come in such a dramatic way. On social media, a familiar name is repeatedly mentioned: Davis Flag, the talented striker who is known as the "Brandstone of the Next Generation".

But what is really interesting is the hidden thread behind this news - LeBron James.

2011: 2.8% of the miracle and the birth of Irving

When LeBron brought his talent to the South Coast in 2010, Cleveland fans burned his jerseys and cursed the team that lost the Kings to fall into darkness forever. But fate gave a sarcastic response: on the 2011 draft night, the Cavaliers won the No. 1 pick with a 2.8% chance, and selected Kyrie Irving. Three years later, when LeBron returned to Cleveland, Irving had long grown into his perfect deputy and fulfilled the Cavaliers' redemption myth in that fatal three-pointer in 2016.

People say it is a coincidence until history starts to repeat.

2014: The Timberwolves' "sensible" and the arrival of Towns

That summer, LeBron announced his return home, and the Cavaliers quickly exchanged No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love to form the new three giants. Interestingly, the traded Timberwolves drew the No. 1 pick with a 25% chance the following year, picking Carl Anthony Towns - although they had a 75% chance of missing out. What is even more intriguing is that when the Lakers won the championship in 2020, Love's old teammate Davis was wearing a purple and gold jersey, which was the core bargaining chip that the Pelicans won the No. 1 pick with a 6% probability in 2019 and traded to the Lakers.

2024: 1.8% and unfinished puzzles of the Mavericks nowadays, when the Mavericks get the No. 1 pick with an almost absurd 1.8% probability, rumors begin to spread: If Doncic is sent to the Lakers' partner LeBron, will Dallas suddenly be compensated by fate one day like the Cavaliers and Pelicans? After all, the deadlock between Antetokounmpo and the Bucks has not been cracked, and Lakers general manager Pelinka's phone has never been quiet.

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Sports history is always composed of interweaving probability and narrative. LeBron's career seemed to be surrounded by some kind of gravitational field: the team that left him was often favored by the No. 1 pick, while the teammates who followed him always shone on the highest stage. Is this an undercurrent of the alliance or a pure accident? No one can assert.

But it is certain that when the Mavericks management raised champagne tonight, a 39-year-old veteran sitting at his home in Los Angeles might be smiling at the TV. After all, in the NBA world, 1.8% is never just a number - it is the almost inaudible gear biting when the wheel of destiny turns.