CHICAGO — Thanks to their worst record in franchise history, the Pacers had 140 four-ball combinations for Sunday’s NBA Draft lottery, tied with the Wizards and Nets for the most of any team. None of those 140 were particularly lucky, however, and since they didn’t get a top-four selection they had to send the No. 5 pick to the Clippers as a condition of their trade for center Ivica Zubac. They had three of the four numbers in the cases of all four selections, but for each of the first two picks they knew they were out after the first two balls.
The lottery drawing — which an IndyStar reporter got to witness first-hand on Sunday as one of 16 media members allowed in the drawing room — is conducted using 14 numbered ping-pong balls entered into a lottery machine with four drawn out to determine the winner of the top four picks. There are 1,001 possible four-ball combinations with numbers 1-14 without regard to the order the balls are drawn.
The combinations, however, are sequentially assigned rather than randomly. The team with the worst record — in this case the Wizards — gets what would be considered the first 140 combinations starting with 1-2-3-4, continuing to 1-2-3-5, 1-2-3-6 and so on. They owned every combination that included a 1 and 2, every combination that included a 1 and 3 and several that included a 1 and a 4. The Pacers’ numbers started at 1-4-7-10 and continued to 1-10-12-13.
That meant the Pacers couldn’t win on any combination that did not include a 1 and could not win any combination that did include a 2 or a 3. The 1 ball was selected just once — for the No. 1 pick — but only after a 2 had already been drawn.
The four numbers for the No. 1 pick were, in order of selection 4-2-1-13. The 4 was a good start, but Ted Wu — the Pacers’ executive vice president of basketball operations and assistant general manager who was in the room representing the team — knew he was out by the second ball, and by the third ball only Washington had a chance at earning the pick. The numbers for the second ball came out 14-2-6-9 with the pick going to the Jazz, and again the Pacers were out on the second ball.
The number 2 started the third four-ball combination, followed by 8, 11 and 7, but that combination also belonged to the Jazz, so the pick was re-drawn. The next combination went 13-4-10-6. The Pacers had a 1-4-10-13 combination so they were still in contention after the first three balls, but they could win unless the fourth ball was a 1, and the pick went to Memphis. The fourth combination came out 7-6-9-8. Sub out any of the four numbers with a 1 and the Pacers would have won the pick, but when they got to the last ball, they knew a 1 was their only chance.
The lottery drawing was completed about an hour before the television show announcing the picks began. However, media members and team representatives were sequestered in the drawing room until the television show was over. No one in the room was allowed to have a phone, computer or recording device so they could not relay the results of the lottery to anyone outside of it. Placards with logos were placed into envelopes with the numbered selections and the Pacers logo was not placed in an envelope as the pick was announced on stage as the Clippers selection. So Wu had to wait for over an hour to discuss next steps with fellow Pacers executives Kevin Pritchard and Chad Buchanan, as only he knew which way the ping-pong balls had fallen.
Dustin Dopirak covers the Pacers all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Pacers Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Behind the scenes: Why the Pacers never had a chance in the NBA Draft lottery
Reporting by Dustin Dopirak, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
