Inside Wizards GM's Realization of Lottery Disappointment

The Washington Wizards' name was called much earlier than anyone anticipated on Monday's reveal of the NBA Draft lottery order, dealing an all-time unlucky hand to a franchise with no shortage of misfortune in their past.

Wizards General Manager Will Dawkins handled their falling all the way down from a potential top pick to #6 with grace following the lottery's live broadcast, speaking to the media soon afterwards about his excitement to move forward as a scout, but it helped that he had a little bit more notice than everyone else.

He was there alongside one executive from every other lottery team as the numbered ping pong balls came shooting out, with the combination of 10-14-11-7 granting the Dallas Mavericks the opportunity to draft Duke top prospect Cooper Flagg within a calendar year of their making it all the way to the NBA Finals before hastily trading away franchise superstar Luka Doncic.

Zach Lowe had some insight to offer on how the live ping pong ball drawing actually went down among the present general managers. The Ringer's insider had a front row seat to the ordeal, and got to watch the as the disbelief set in for all of the tanking GMs as they realized they'd been thwarted by the Mavericks.

"The amount of murmuring and whispering and looks around the room during the lottery drawing, which is normally silent, was unprecedented," Lowe said on his podcast yesterday.

He references the first three balls coming up with high numbers, opening the door for a low-odds team to swoop in for the #1 pick, to which point Utah Jazz representative Justin Zanik shared a fearful exchange with Dawkins.