Chicago • On Tuesday night, for the 30th time, the NBA will hold its annual lottery, with the winner obtaining the golden ticket to the first overall pick of the draft.
This is indeed a milestone. Over the years, the NBA lottery has been tweaked. There were seven teams when it was introduced in 1985. Teams have tanked in order to make the run at the top pick. Every decade or so, there have been generational players at the top of the heap: Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson and LeBron James.
It's all been so entertaining.
Wrap it up in a package, and the NBA has achieved its desired results in spades. On Tuesday night, the lottery will receive as much attention as the Western Conference Finals Game 1 between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets. Indeed, the lottery is an annual event now, a symbol of hope among teams and fans alike. It's a way to take the sting off being an also-ran.
You lose a lot? That's OK. One lucky bounce can take care of that.
"I think the lottery system is good and has been good for the NBA," said Rod Thorn, the NBA's president of player personnel. "It's been changed three or four times. We've had the current system for the past 25 years. I think it gives hope to teams. At the same time, teams know they just can't tank, and know they are going to get the first pick."
And this is what the Utah Jazz will do on Tuesday night, hope. They finished the season 38-44, and with a young core are set up about as well as any team that will be on the podium that night in New York City.
But luck is always involved when building a franchise; General Manager Dennis Lindsey acknowledged as such. Ask the Orlando Magic, who against long odds won the top pick in consecutive drafts in the early 1990s. Those players turned out to be Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee Hardaway.
The Magic were in the NBA Finals by 1995.
Ask the San Antonio Spurs, who once saw David Robinson go down with a season-long injury, got lucky in the lottery and drafted Duncan. They've since won five titles and been contenders for the past 18 years.
As a franchise, the Jazz know they face long odds. They are slotted for the 12th pick, and the chances of moving into the top three are very slim indeed. But there's still a chance, and that's all they want at this point
"You hope for the best, but you won't stake your mortgage on it," Lindsey said. "To be a good team, you need hard work, you need opportunity. You also need good fortune. We're hoping that we get some good fortune and if we do, everyone associated with the Jazz that night will go home with a smile on their face."
No doubt, this is the intrigue of it all. Through 30 years, the stories and the mystery have been handed down through time like old wives' tales. Not many can forget the New York Knicks magically winning the first lottery in 1985 and the right to select Patrick Ewing.
In 2003, when James was a superstar high school player out of Akron, Ohio, it was the Cleveland Cavaliers winning it all and the opportunity to take the hometown hero.
"That was one of the few times the team with the worst record actually won the first pick," Thorn recalled.
And in 2011, when James bolted for the Miami Heat, the Cavs won again, and took Kyrie Irving. Conspiracy theorists everywhere have suggested that was a gift to Cleveland in reaction to losing the franchise.
"The great thing about the lottery is that it can afford a team instant help," ESPN Draft guru Fran Fraschilla said. "Back when it first started, there were truly great college players. Players had more of an immediate impact in the league. Take the first lottery draft. That turned out players like Ewing, Wayman Tisdale, Karl Malone and Charles Oakley. You don't have those immediate impact guys anymore."
Fraschilla is correct. There's a lot more guesswork that goes into drafts nowadays than even 10 years ago. And that can lead to more mistakes. In 2013, the Cavaliers took Anthony Bennett with the No. 1 pick, and he's yet to make any impact over his first two years.
In 2008, the Portland Trail Blazers took Greg Oden over Kevin Durant, a move that the franchise will probably eternally regret. Oden is out of the league, and Durant looks like he will be an all-time great.
Even so, with the rise of underclassmen, there are some picks that border on the obvious. In 2014, no less than a half-dozen teams tanked their way to awful seasons in hope of selecting Andrew Wiggins out of Kansas. They were correct. Wiggins was a standout as a rookie for the Minnesota Timberwolves and has the potential to one day be one of the best players in the league.
It's been like this over the course of three decades. And at the 30 year mark, the NBA's lottery system is as exciting and intriguing as the day it was created.
And that, in large part, was the intent of it all.
tjones@sltrib.com
twitter: @tjonessltrib
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