Inside the NBA

Rocket Power  

Houston defied the odds and won the lottery jackpot -- the No. 1 pick in the draft

By Ian Thomsen

Golden State G.M. Garry St. Jean leaned over a sink on Sunday and threw cold water in his face. He had just been dealt another bad break, this time at the NBA draft lottery. The Warriors have been cursed since the 1994 falling out between the team's star (Chris Webber) and its coach (Don Nelson) led to the departure of both men and set the franchise back years. That was followed three years later by Latrell Sprewell's attempt to strangle coach P.J. Carlesimo, and lately the frustrated efforts of St. Jean to get more out of the dazzling young talent he has spent the last five years assembling.

If the Warriors don't deal their No. 3 pick, they might well snag Duke forward Mike Dunleavy. John W. McDonough

Golden State won only 21 games this season, tying Chicago for the worst record in the league, but that gave the Warriors and the Bulls the most Ping-Pong balls in Sunday's lottery drawing. Yet Houston, despite having the fifth-worst record and a slim 8.9% chance of winning, watched its number come up and will have the first pick in the June 26 draft. Chicago has the second pick and Golden State the third. That means St. Jean will have to make an expensive swap with the Rockets or the Bulls to get 7'5" Chinese center Yao Ming or Duke point guard Jay Williams, who could instantly resolve the Warriors' playmaking and shooting woes. The Rockets almost certainly won't draft Williams: They already have an All-Star point guard in Steve Francis. But if Houston believes Yao has the potential to become another Hakeem Olajuwon, whom the Rockets drafted with the top pick in 1984, they will surely grab him.

If the Rockets are interested in trading the top pick, Golden State wouldn't be the only potential suitor. The others would include Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Golden State, Phoenix, Miami and New York (though the last two would have little to offer in trade). Things could get interesting as draft preparation enters its final month. Here are the top teams to watch:

No. 5 Denver: This has the makings of a promising stretch for the Nuggets, who could have as much as $30 million in cap room to spend in 2003.

No. 4 Memphis: Jerry West will be looking for the best player available. Caron Butler of UConn? Drew Gooden of Kansas? Nene Hilario of Brazil? Fortunately for the Grizzlies, West is the league's best evaluator of talent.

No. 3 Golden State: If St. Jean can't move up, he'll probably be looking at Duke forward Mike Dunleavy, a consensus high lottery pick. "That wouldn't be bad," said St. Jean, his face brightening at the thought.

No. 2 Chicago: G.M. Jerry Krause is said to have fallen in love with the idea of a frontline of 7'5" Yao, 7'1" Tyson Chandler and 6'11" Eddy Curry. He also is a fan of Williams's. As a third option, he figures to have $6 million under the luxury-tax threshold this summer, which would allow him to package the draft pick in a trade for veteran help.

No. 1 Houston: Last year the Rockets gambled three first-round picks on a draft-night trade for Eddie Griffin, whom they hadn't worked out. Coach Rudy Tomjanovich and G.M. Carroll Dawson will be looking to make the most of this pick, conventional wisdom be damned.

Houston's ascension to the No. 1 pick this year was more complicated than the coin flip it won in 1984 to beat out Portland for the right to choose first. Wary of accusations of a fixed lottery if New York were to win (such conspiracy theories cropped up when the Knicks won the 1985 lottery and snared Patrick Ewing), the league invited an SI reporter and three other media representatives behind closed doors to witness the lottery.

The ceremony was similar to the state-run lotteries that are broadcast throughout the country. A briefcase was brought in, and its plastic lock was snipped off as representatives of the 13 lottery teams sat watching in a small upstairs room at the NBA Entertainment headquarters in Secaucus, N.J. Fourteen numbered Ping-Pong balls were removed from the briefcase and dropped one by one into a clear plastic lottery machine, where they floated like popcorn seeds in a hot-air popper. All but one of the 1,001 possible combinations of four numbers were randomly assigned to the 13 lottery teams, with the worst teams getting the most combinations. Balls bearing the numbers 13, 8, 11 and 4 came up first, matching one of the 89 combinations assigned to the Rockets. Nelson Luis, Houston's director of team communications, didn't react to the winning combination until an NBA executive confirmed it. Luis then threw a victory punch and said "Yes!" before settling back into his chair, not wanting to gloat. The Rockets won't have time to celebrate until draft day.

Issue date: May 27, 2002

For more Inside the NBA see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, May 22. Click here to subscribe to SI.

 

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