Ping pong balls will again decide the futures of 14 NBA franchises Tuesday night (8 p.m., ESPN) when the league holds its annual draft lottery to determine the order of the first 14 picks in the June 24 draft. The New Jersey Nets, owners of the league’s worst record this season at 12-70, have the best shot at this year’s No. 1 pick with a 25 percent chance. As it stands now, the consensus No. 1 pick is University of Kentucky point guard John Wall, who quarterbacked the Wildcats to a 35-5 record as a freshman. The Minnesota Timberwolves, Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors have the next best chances at getting the top pick.
Because there is so much on the line over what is effectively just drawing names out of a hat, the draft lottery has made for some very interesting moments since the league went to the format in 1985. Here’s a top 10 list of some of the greatest moments in the history of the draft lottery (Celtics fans, you may want to shield your eyes from some of them):
10. Nets Win 2000 lottery with only 4.4 percent chance
To be brutally honest, the 1999-2000 Los Angeles Clippers played like the Clippers. The No. 1 pick in the 1998 draft, Michael Olowokandi, failed to average double-digits in points and rebounds. The team struggled to a league-worst 15-67 record. The only sign of relief for LA fans was the opportunity to win the lottery in 2000, and with a 25 percent shot, their chances seemed pretty good.
The end result? More disappointment.
Somehow, someway, the Nets, the seventh-worst team in the NBA the previous season, walked away with the No. 1 selection and went on to take Cincinnati forward Kenyon Martin, who eventually helped to lead the Nets to the NBA finals in 2002. The Clippers were stuck with the third pick and chose high schooler Darius Miles, who lasted only two seasons in LA before leaving for Cleveland in 2002.
9. Bulls Win in 2008 with 1.7 percent shot
The story almost seemed too perfect. Chicago native Derrick Rose entered the draft in 2008 after a stellar freshman campaign at Memphis as one of the potential No. 1 picks. His hometown Bulls were guaranteed a lottery pick, but because the team owned only 17 of the 1,000 ping pong balls, it appeared more likely that Michael Jordan would put on a Bulls jersey in 2008 than Rose. Lo and behold, when NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver revealed the envelopes, the Bulls were last to be shown.
With the pick, Chicago took the hometown kid, who already has led the Bulls to the playoffs twice in his two seasons and was named 2008-09 Rookie of the Year.
8. Cavaliers win in 2003, immediately announce they’ll pick LeBron
It’s been written about a lot lately, but the misfortunes of the Cleveland sports fan really have accumulated over the years. The Drive. The Fumble. Jordan’s shot over Ehlo. Jose Mesa’s blown save in the 1997 World Series. After the Cavaliers finished the 2003 season tied for the league’s worst record at 17-65, things certainly didn’t look much better. But there was a potential savior. Local high school product LeBron James, who many touted as one of the draft’s best prospects in years, was there for the taking. The Cavs just needed the opportunity to take him, and after winning the lottery, they finally got that shot.
Now, the worst team winning the draft lottery isn’t that big of a moment. In fact, it’s happened three times since 1990. However, what makes this the No. 8 moment in the countdown is the fact that almost immediately after the lottery had ended, the Cavs announced that they would in fact take King James. Owner Gordon Gund said as much in several interviews that night. Juxtapose that with the Bulls executive who wouldn’t give a straight answer about picking Rose, and you see why the 2003 lottery gets this spot.
7. Defending champion Celtics get No. 2 pick in 1986
This is where you may want to skip ahead, C’s fans. Boston was coming off the best season in NBA history with a 67-15 record in 1985-86 and an NBA Finals trophy to boot. Normally, that equates to the last pick in the first round of the draft. However, the great Red Auerbach found a way to ship guard Gerald Henderson along with cash to the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for their spot in the upcoming lottery. The rich kept getting richer when the C’s got the No. 2 pick.
Boston eventually picked Len Bias, an All-American out of Maryland who many thought could take eventually take the torch from Larry Bird and keep the Celtics greatness going well into the future. Only two days after being selected, Bias died tragically of a cocaine overdose. He never even had the chance to suit up in a Celtics uniform.
6. Celtics miss out on Oden and Durant in 2007
Twenty-one years after the Bias pick, the Celtics again found themselves with a pretty good chance at a high pick in the 2007 lottery. After a 24-58 season during which many of those in the media criticized the C’s for not trying in games in the hopes of getting a high pick, the Celtics saw themselves with the second-best chance at getting the No. 1 pick and the chance at freshman phenoms Greg Oden (who since has struggled to stay injury-free) or Kevin Durant (who possibly has exceeded all expectations). What happened next can be seen here:
You can see Silver’s surprise when he pulls the Celtics logo at the 2:05 mark in the video. Side note: At 1:47, you can also hear the announcer say that Kevin Garnett will not be traded. So much for that.
5/4. Raptors and Grizzlies win lotteries in 1996 and 1998 but are forced to pick second
When the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies entered the league in 1995, they agreed to not accept the No. 1 pick in the draft until 1999 as per their expansion agreement with the NBA. That seems fine. Certainly no one plans to be in a position to take the first overall pick. You plan to win and therefore be out of the running. However, that’s not usually the case with expansion teams, and it certainly wasn’t with either team. The Raptors won the 1996 lottery, only a year after entering the league, but were forced to give it up to Philadelphia. The 76ers used it on future MVP Allen Iverson, who is talking about practice:
The Grizzlies had less of a gripe in 1998 when they gave up their pick to the Clippers, who took eventual bust Michael Olowokandi.
3. Celtics lose out on Duncan in 1997
Now for the worst moment in Celtics draft lottery history. The 1996-97 version of the C’s did everything they could to get the top pick in the 1997 draft. Their .183 winning percentage was the worst in franchise history. But really, who could blame them? Wake Forest forward Tim Duncan, seen by many as player who could immediately turn around any franchise, was entering the draft, and the C’s had a 27.5 percent chance at securing his services.
Unfortunately for Boston fans, the lottery gave that honor to the San Antonio Spurs. The C’s got the third pick and Chauncey Billups. Here’s a video of the Spurs selecting Duncan, and let’s look back and think of what might have, and in the eyes of some Celtics fans, should have been.
2. Magic win lottery for second year in a row with 1.52 percent chance
One in 66. How would you like those odds for anything? Well if you were in a Magic fan in 1993, you loved those numbers because that’s what the Magic had going against them going into the 1993 lottery. As the only .500 team in the lottery, Orlando understandably and almost rightfully didn’t have much of a shot at the first pick. The Magic won the lottery the year before and used the pick on Shaquille O’Neal. No team is lucky enough to win it two years in a row, never mind the 1-in-66 odds against them. Well, look at the video. You can even see the GM’s surprise starting at 6:45.
1. Knicks win 1985 lottery for rights to Ewing, conspiracy theorists rise up
So, here’s the biggest thing to happen in an NBA draft lottery, and it happened in the first one, no less. In order to stop teams from throwing games in order to get a better pick, NBA commissioner David Stern decided to throw envelopes representing the seven worst teams in the league into a drum and pick them out by hand to see who got which pick. Here’s the video:
Now, the New York Knicks, playing in the country’s biggest market, getting the draft’s biggest star certainly is big news for the NBA. With that being said, some have looked at the video, including ESPN’s Bill Simmons, and have said there is evidence that the NBA rigged the lottery process. At 4:50, you can see Jack Wagner, the Ernst & Whinney partner, throw one envelope against the side of the drum. He does not do this for the other envelopes. Then, at roughly 5:30, you can see Stern pick out an envelope for the first pick that may or may not have a crease on it that may or may not have been caused by Wagner’s throwing it against the drum. Did the NBA cheat the system to help the big-market Knicks? Well, you can be the judge of that, but it certainly made for the most interesting NBA draft lottery moment.
