By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — For Michael Winger, 1 was the loneliest number. And for the Washington Wizards, it was the best ping-pong ball.
Let’s explain: Winger, the president of Monumental Basketball, was the Wizards’ representative inside the sequestered room where the NBA draft lottery was taking place Sunday. The first ball was 4, the second ball was 2.
“I knew it was us,” Winger said.
He was right. The third ball — 1 — made it official. The fourth ball was a 13, which meant nothing. The 4-2-1 combination ensured that the Wizards had won the lottery and earned the right to pick No. 1 in next month’s draft, a huge step forward for a team that finished with the league’s worst record this season. And for the next 45 minutes, before the rest of the world found out during a television broadcast, Winger was essentially stone-faced.
“I could have celebrated by myself, looking around for somebody to high-five,” Winger said. “There wouldn’t have been anybody there.”
The celebrations came later. Winger, Wizards great John Wall, vice president of player personnel Travis Schlenk, coach Brian Keefe and assistant coach David Vanterpool posed on stage after the lottery ended, all smiles. There haven’t been a lot of moments worth smiling about in Wizards-land over the last three years. That may be changing.
“It’s our fans that have endured the most,” Winger said. “And to me, this No. 1 pick is for them. It’s a reward for hanging in there with us. It’s a reward to continue to support us despite sometimes really bad basketball. They knew and they supported a multiyear teardown, a multiyear reinvention of the franchise.”
It will be Washington’s first time with the No. 1 pick since they chose Wall in that spot in 2010. Wall was the Wizards’ on-stage representative for the lottery.
“They could be a team that I feel should be in playoff contention next year,” Wall said.
Washington had a 14% chance of winning the No. 1 pick, tied with Brooklyn and Indiana for the best odds. The Wizards had basically a 50-50 chance of getting either a top-four pick or the No. 5 spot.
But three consecutive years of losing — the three worst seasons in the franchise’s 65-year history — paid off for a team that went 17-65 this season and even allowed Miami’s Bam Adebayo to score 83 points for the league’s second-highest single-game total ever.
The Wizards swung deals to land All-Stars Trae Young and Anthony Davis earlier this year, and now they can add whichever college player they want.
“This is another step in our journey,” Keefe said. “Obviously, it’s a great day and we’re looking forward to going through the process and finding who we’re going to take with that pick, but I’m just thrilled for everybody that works with the organization and most importantly the community.”
Winger brought a photo of his family with him into the lottery room, perhaps the bit of luck he needed. And there is a certain symmetry to how the 4-2-1 combination was what delivered for the Wizards; those numbers add up to 7.
“The day I was born,” said Keefe, born April 7, 1976.
Utah will pick No. 2, Memphis will pick No. 3 and Chicago will pick No. 4.
The Los Angeles Clippers got the fifth pick — via a trade with the Pacers, who were shut out of the draft entirely — followed by No. 6 Brooklyn, No. 7 Sacramento, No. 8 Atlanta, No. 9 Dallas, No. 10 Milwaukee, No. 11 Golden State, No. 12 Oklahoma City, No. 13 Miami and No. 14 Charlotte.
The draft begins June 23 in New York. The draft combine in Chicago starts on Monday.
No. 1 pick possibilities
There are four candidates that generally are considered front-runners to be the No. 1 pick, all coming out of college after one year.
— BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, who led the nation in scoring at 25.5 points per game.
— Duke’s Cameron Boozer, the AP player of the year who averaged 22.5 points and 10.1 rebounds.
— Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, who averaged 20.2 points in 24 games.
— North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson, who averaged 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds on 58% shooting.
“Obviously we’re going to find out on June 23 where I’m going to land,” Dybantsa said. “I’m betting on myself to be a No. 1 pick. I think I’m very adaptable, I can play anywhere.”
It’s now possible that Boozer could be selected by the Bulls or the Jazz — two teams that his father, Carlos Boozer, played for in his NBA days.
“It could be surreal, for sure,” Cameron Boozer said.
Last of this format (probably)
This was the eighth, and likely final, year of this version of an NBA draft lottery, with the worst teams having a 14% chance of winning.
Framework fell into place last month on changes meant to further discourage tanking, and the league’s Board of Governors is expected to ratify that plan in the next few weeks — with general managers meeting in Chicago on Tuesday to discuss them presumably for one last time.
The three worst teams, starting next season, would have a 5.4% chance of winning — with the next seven teams all having an 8.1% chance of winning. The lottery would grow from 14 to 16 teams if the plan, as expected, is approved.
___
AP Sports Writer Andrew Seligman and freelance reporter Scott Held contributed to this report.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba