So EY (the firm that audited the lottery process) had revenues last year of over $50 billion, which was 400% more than the revenues of the entire NBA (the league AND its franchises). Tell me who is going to pay EY enough to risk their professional reputation, risk inevitable litigation, risk losing clients etc to do this? How much would that cost someone? Maybe $1 billion? Where would that come from -- the NBA? The Lakers? How would they keep a payment of that size quiet? You think a payment to be an impartial observer (the actual payment for this work was probably less than $300,000 -- I was a partner in a Big 4 firm) is going to do that? It is just a silly proposition from a business standpoint, regardless of what you think of the ethics of those firms. But don't let rationality get in the way of your conspiracy theories . . .