Thirty-four years ago, the Knicks won the 1985 NBA Draft lottery, the first of its kind. The conspiracy theories began soon after: that the lottery was rigged, fixed, doctored. That New York won the right to draft Patrick Ewing not through luck — the right envelope picked at the right time — but because it had been arranged for them. To this day, these tales endure.A frozen envelope. A bent envelope. An inside job. It’s all out there on the Internet — just pick your rabbit hole and dive in.Now, the Knicks are in a precarious spot again. Tuesday night, they’ll enter the 2019 NBA lottery tied for the best odds to win it all in a year in which one player looms large over the whole draft. The night could revitalize the franchise or bring more dread. A 14 percent chance at Zion Williamson and an 86 percent chance of heartbreak.If the Knicks win again this year, no matter the long interregnum, there might be cries of conspiracy one more time.What if the only way the Knicks could win the lottery again — it has been 34 years after all and the Knicks haven’t even moved up in the draft since — was if the lottery was rigged?With all that as prelude, what follows is an investigation by The Athletic: If the lottery were rigged, how would it happen? In an age of televised transparency and dogmatic Twitter sleuths, can the lottery still be rigged?To find out, I talked to magicians, illusionists, lottery machine experts, gaming officials and screenwriters and asked them to let their imagination wander. Can the NBA lottery be fixed? And what are the precautions the league and others take to make sure the idea is nothing more than a conspiracy theory?The 2019 NBA Draft lottery will take place May 14 at the Hilton Chicago inside a room off-stage, with a few league officials present, representatives for 14 teams, reporters, and a partner from Ernst & Young keeping watch. There will be 14 ping-pong balls, numbered sequentially, placed into a Smart Play lottery machine, with 1,001 attend