Luck was not on the side of the Washington Wizards during Tuesday’s NBA draft lottery. The San Antonio Spurs walked away with the No. 1 overall pick, while the Wizards will select eighth overall in this year’s NBA Draft.
However, the Wizards almost landed the top pick over the Spurs. Washington had a 6.7% chance of winning the No. 1 pick. Their odds increased drastically with the first three balls drawn.
According to Ben Golliver of The Washington Post, after the first three numbers — 14, 5, and 8 — got drawn, the Wizards had 6 of the possible 11 remaining numbers, which gave the team a 55% chance at that point to win the lottery.
Unfortunately, the final number was 2, one of five remaining numbers Washington did not have. An opportunity to change the fortunes of the franchise in a blink vanished. Instead, the Spurs landed the prized opportunity to draft 7-foot-5 French sensation Victor Wembanyama.
During the NBA draft lottery, 14 ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 get placed in a lottery machine. There are 1001 possible combinations. Teams in the lottery are given a number of combinations based on their place in the final regular season standings. For example, the teams that finished the season with the three-worst records had the most ping-pong ball combinations to win the No. 1 pick.
The lottery has four drawings, each determining the top-four picks in the draft, starting with the No. 1 pick. After that, the remaining draft slots are determined by order of the standings. Instead of No. 1, the Wizards will pick eighth.
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