CHICAGO — Joel Glass had the keepsakes in his backpack. One clear smoothie to-go cup filled with three ping-pong balls, one each from the three previous times the Orlando Magic won the NBA Draft Lottery. The Shaquille O’Neal draft. The Penny Hardaway draft (thanks to draft-and-trade including Chris Webber). The Dwight Howard draft.
He had the lucky charms, two blue and one white, and took them with him inside the room where the draft lottery actually happens — a timeless, technology-free spot where ping-pong balls shoot out of a clear drum to determine the draft order.
The Magic had a 14 percent chance to win the lottery after posting the second-worst record in the league this season. They have made six lottery picks since 2015, but never picked higher than fifth.
But as the numbers popped out in the lottery room at the McCormick Place Convention Center — the ones that would form the winning combination — their fortunes suddenly changed.
14. 1. 13. 6.
The Magic were now the proud owners of the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.
Glass, the team’s chief communications officer, barely moved when league lawyer Jamin Dershowitz announced that combination belonged to the Magic. The results came with more relief than joy for him.
Afterward, he sought to add another ping-pong ball to his collection, but at first, he was rebuffed by an NBA official. There was no denying Orlando’s great fortune.
“That’s what you earned tonight,” Jeff Weltman, Magic president of basketball operations, said, “You get to do what you want to do.”
Weltman will get to add a premium prospect to a young roster. Jalen Suggs, last year’s fifth pick, and Cole Anthony are in the backcourt, while Franz Wagner already looks like a key cog for the future. Mo Bamba, Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac have murkier futures. Weltman will get to pick from a slew of talented bigs in Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero and Jabari Smith, the presumptive contenders for the top pick.
He may also have his head coach to thank for this good fortune. Jamahl Mosley felt lucky this morning, so he asked to switch places with Weltman on the dais to represent the franchise in public. While Glass watched from the back room, already knowing the prize was Orlando’s, Mosley did his part during the reveal.
The late change came without much reservation for Cole DeVos, the son of Magic chairman Dan DeVos.
“I actually said to Jeff, well, you’ve represented us in the past, and more recently you haven’t given us too much luck,” he told The Athletic. “So I’m happy Mose is out there.”
DeVos is part of the younger DeVos generation now getting into the family business. Just 25, with a head of blond hair, DeVos says he and his cousins now are becoming involved in the day-to-the-day of the franchise.
This was the first draft lottery he attended in person, but he got to experience what has become almost a generational tradition for the Magic and its fans. They won the lottery in 1992 and 1993, then again in 2004.
He hopes to get involved more with the franchise — he says the personnel side is really interesting and where he hopes to work long term — and the No. 1 pick will afford the Magic numerous ways to go.
“This may be a turning point,” DeVos said. “We’re hoping this is a turning point. Obviously, we have so much young talent on our team already, and adding another good young player who is going to be able to contribute right away is going to be huge for us.”
“The Man” helped the Kings get the No. 4 pick (Courtesy of John Kehriotis)
“The Man” almost didn’t make it to the lottery. John Kehriotis said his 18-month-old grandson kidnapped him this morning; one minute he’s sitting on the counter, the next he disappeared. But Kehriotis, a Kings minority owner, ultimately found him before departing for Chicago, and the Kings were luckier for it.
“The Man” is a totem of great luck for Kehriotis and the franchise. It’s a prickly, jiggly toy with a mop of blue hair, purple arms, black and green striped shoes and a green bow tie. It has been with Kehriotis since 1998, the year when then-Kings general manager Geoff Petrie asked fans for a lucky charm. He got that toy. Kehriotis took it with him to the lottery, and the Kings landed the seventh pick and, eventually, Jason Williams. A fun and highly successful era ensued for the franchise.
The Kings need that kind of fortune again, so Kehriotis brought “The Man” out of retirement.
“He’s a happening dude,” Kehriotis said.
The Kings entered the night with the seventh-best lottery odds after a 30-win season but jumped into the No. 4 spot. That leap could help supercharge this latest rebuild. They are intent on getting to the playoffs in 2023 and ending a 16-season postseason drought.
Kehriotis has been around for all of it. He invested in the team in 1992, he said. He did it “for fun.” He tried to buy the Golden State Warriors in the early 1990s but said Chris Cohan sued, claiming a right of refusal to any franchise sale. Kehriotis had put in an offer, but it didn’t work out.
The Kings had their heyday in the early 2000s, when they won 50 or more games in five straight seasons — including 61 and a Western Conference finals trip in 2001-02. The franchise has not recovered since the sun set on that team.
“I’ve seen good times, tough times,” Kehriotis said. “And we’re about to have good times again.”
The Kings have centered themselves around All-Star Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox. Kehriotis gushed about the job Monte McNair has done. He sees a bright future and, finally, better days ahead.
Now, they have the No. 4 pick. They might land one of the top three bigs in the draft, or Purdue guard Jaden Ivey. They might trade it for another veteran to provide immediate help. McNair has not been timid; landing Sabonis cost him Tyrese Haliburton, one of the league’s most promising young guards.
Kehriotis could not be more excited with how this lottery played out and where it puts the franchise.
“This is huge for us,” he said.
The Thunder rebuild just got some more ammunition. Oklahoma City landed the No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft, jumping two spots from their lottery slot, and also took the 12th pick owed to them by the Clippers. That will give them a chance to put a top-flight talent alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey, then another lottery pick on top of that.
So to what do the Thunder owe this good fortune? General manager Sam Presti doesn’t quite call them lucky charms. He wouldn’t use that phrase to describe the two items he brought into the lottery room Tuesday night.
He took two rocks, one given to him by his then toddler-aged son and one given to him by his wife. One is fuchsia, the other turns a vibrant royal blue under the right light.
“Not lucky charms,” Presti said of the rocks. “Things that I value. I’m not a huge believer in that, but chance happens to us all the time.”
If the Houston Rockets land a future star with the No. 3 pick in the draft, they’ll be able to thank a quick decision made 20 years ago by Clay Allen, the team’s general counsel.
Allen was working in the team’s marketing department in 2002 when the Rockets retired Hakeem Olajuwon’s jersey. Rudy Tomjanovich gave a speech that night, and he wrote it on the back of a white scouting report page, using the blank white back of the paper. When he was done, he left the paper on the podium he stood at. Allen’s job was to move the podium; he grabbed the paper, too.
Allen’s brother has held on to the paper ever since. It’s been kept with love, with Allen’s brother even folding it in the same creases that Tomjanovich folded it that night in 2002.
When Allen was asked to represent the franchise for the 2021 lottery, held quietly in Secaucus, N.J., he took the speech. The Rockets got the No. 2 pick and took Jalen Green. Houston asked him to be in the lottery room again this season, so he took the notes again.
He hopes the Rockets don’t return to the lottery next year so he never uses them again. Allen has worked for the franchise since 2001 — save for a spell in law school until he came back to work on the team’s legal side — and when the Rockets won the No. 3 pick, he grinned and shook hands with Glass.
- The lottery room was much quieter this year than it was in 2019, when Alvin Gentry dropped a few curses after the Pelicans won the No. 1 pick. There wasn’t much emotion from Glass, Presti or Allen. But the room did burst into some laughs when they showed Sabonis on ESPN, grinning after the Kings jumped into the top four.
- Portland Trail Blazers president of business operations Dewayne Hankins brought a pressed coin from the Moda Center and a silver four-leaf clover coin, both given to him by his kids.
- Governors, they’re just like us. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker found Banchero after the lottery in a mass of people just to introduce himself and his son to the Duke star.
- The only person who gets to leave the ping-pong room early before the results have been televised: “Peter from Ernst & Young,” who brings the envelopes to Mark Tatum so he can announce the order on TV.
- There are 1,001 possible combinations in the lottery, but only 1,000 of them are winners attributed to teams.
- NBA executive Micah Day is the timekeeper for the event. He tells another executive when to pick a ball out of the drum. But he does it without looking at him. Day stands with his back to the ping-pong machine, holding an orange stopwatch in his left hand and raising his right hand when it’s time.
- The winning lottery numbers for the Thunder: 2, 7, 14, 9. For the Rockets: 1, 12, 6, 3. For the Kings: 4, 7, 5, 10. The Rockets’ numbers came up again after they took the No. 3 pick, but that had to be scrapped because they had already gotten their pick.
(Top photo of Jamahl Mosley and Mark Tatum: Kamil Krzaczynski / NBAE via Getty Images)
