Orlando Magic win NBA draft lottery for 1st time since 2004
The Orlando Magic won the NBA draft lottery Tuesday night and landed the No. 1 overall pick for the first time since they got Dwight Howard in 2004.
It's the fourth time lottery luck struck for the Magic, who won in back-to-back years in 1992 and 1993, taking Shaquille O'Neal and then trading the rights to Chris Webber for Penny Hardaway.
Orlando finished with the worst record in the Eastern Conference at 22-60 and missed the playoffs for the eighth time in 10 years. But they got a huge win in the lottery, where they had a 14 per cent chance landing the top pick.
Duke's Paolo Banchero, Gonzaga's Chet Holmgren, Purdue's Jaden Ivey and Auburn's Jabari Smith are widely considered the most likely candidates to be taken first. The draft is June 23 in New York.
Oklahoma City got the second pick, followed by Houston and Sacramento. The Kings moved up from the No. 7 spot entering the lottery.
Detroit picks fifth, with Indiana, Portland, New Orleans and Washington rounding out the top 10. The rest of the lottery results are: New York, Oklahoma City, Charlotte and Cleveland.
The 2022 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBADraftLottery?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBADraftLottery</a> presented by State Farm is complete. <a href="https://t.co/NUlGiluyAN">pic.twitter.com/NUlGiluyAN</a>
The lottery, with 14 ping pong balls numbered one through 14 placed into a hopper, sets the first four picks. The remainder of the non-playoff teams go in reverse order of their finish.
Houston, Orlando and Detroit had the best odds of winning the lottery at 14 per cent. All three had young teams that finished at the bottom of the NBA.
The Magic are committed to building through the draft after trading veterans Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon in
