Even after the winning numbers popped up, after Jamin Dershowitz, the NBA lawyer charged with locating the winning combination of Ping-Pong balls on one of eight poster boards inside a sealed-off ballroom on the first floor of McCormick Place announced “San Antonio,” Brian Wright didn’t flinch. No clap, no fist bump. Certainly not the two-handed table slam and excited roar his boss, Spurs managing partner Peter Holt, let out after San Antonio’s placard was revealed on ESPN an hour later. In the moment the franchise was changed forever, the Spurs GM was motionless.
“I’m like a duck swimming on water,” Wright told a handful of notebook-scribbling reporters later, noting the frantic foot movement underneath a calm exterior. “That’s what it feels like on the inside.”
The NBA draft lottery has become one of the league’s most compelling events, a made-for-TV drama out of which the NBA is only so happy to squeeze a few ratings points. Each year, representatives from the 14 lottery teams are positioned on a stage where the draft order is revealed. The actual lottery takes place earlier, behind closed doors, in an electronics-free room where 14 other team reps sit behind three rows of tables while Ping-Pong balls are drawn to determine the top four picks.
