With the NBA Draft Lottery likely headed for an overhaul as soon as next year, it appears the lottery’s television product could undergo a similar change.
According to a report by Sam Amick and Mike Vorkunov in The Athletic, the NBA might choose to televise the lottery drawing next year, a departure from the typical lottery telecast that simply reveals the order of picks. Per The Athletic, “After decades of being drawn in a backroom where the results fed the televised broadcast, the lottery may be televised live next year.”
In other words, instead of viewers watching teams being pulled from envelopes with the order already determined, viewers may now be shown the actual process of NBA officials drawing ping-pong balls from a circulator.
While the lottery is audited by a third-party firm, one could imagine part of the reasoning for shifting the television product to show the selection of ping pong balls would be to increase transparency among fans. There was no shortage of conspiracy theories last year when the Dallas Mavericks, soon after trading away superstar Luka Dončić, were awarded the No. 1 overall pick with just a 1.8% probability, allowing the team to snag consensus top pick Cooper Flagg.
The potential change comes amid a broader retooling of the NBA Draft Lottery, pushed by the league to disincentivize tanking. Under the new system, which will require a two-thirds vote by teams at a Board of Governors meeting on May 28, teams that finish with a bottom-three record will receive worse lottery odds than teams finishing with the fourth through tenth-worst records in the league. Teams with the three worst records in the league will receive two lottery balls out of 37 total, equating to a 5.4% chance to receive the first-overall pick, while teams Nos. 4-10 in the lottery standings will receive three balls, or an 8.1% chance. The ninth and 10th-placed teams in the Play-In Tournament will also get two balls, while the losers of the 7-8 Play-In matchups will get one ball.
Overall, the NBA is flattening the odds across what would be an expanded 16-team lottery under the new format. Under the current system, the worst team in the league receives a 14% chance at the first-overall pick. Previously, before the current reforms were implemented, the worst team had a 25% chance of being selected first.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.