He is at the center of attention in world basketball, at the height of his 2.21 m and his 19 years. Victor Wembanyama is the new UFO of basketball, and he will soon join the league that best suits this kind of talent: the NBA. On the night of May 16 to 17, the Metropolitans 92 player for a few more weeks will find out which club he should land in next season, through a… lottery game. A specificity made in American sport. We explain to you.
The fourteen clubs that did not have access to the NBA playoffs participate in this lottery. The latter determines, by a game of chance, which club will be able to choose first during the draft which will take place on June 22. This “draft” allows young people from all over the world who have passed the age of 22 – unless exempted, as for Victor Wembanyama – to present themselves to NBA clubs. The championship being a closed league, to give a chance to the clubs which are at the end of the classification, the latter choose, in theory, the best talents.
The nuggets are therefore distributed in all the clubs of the league, without having a say in their preferred destination. However, a rule has changed since 2019: some clubs practiced “tanking”, the fact of voluntarily losing their last games to recruit the best hope available in the next draft. So the lottery system was created.
To your calculators: 14 ping-pong balls are placed in a machine, numbered from 1 to 14. Four of them are drawn at random, to form a four-digit combination, out of 1,001 possible. And 1,000 of these combinations are allocated to the fourteen teams concerned, according to a distribution calculated by the results of the regular season. The 1001st combination is considered invalid. The three franchises with the worst record have 140 combinations each, giving them a 14% chance of hitting the jackpot, namely the chance to choose a young talent first.
So that’s: Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets at 14%; Charlotte Hornets at 12.5%; Portland Trail Blazers at 10.5%, Orlando Magic at 9%, Washington Wizards at 6.8%, Indiana Pacers at 6.17%, Utah Jazz at 4.5%, Dallas Mavericks at 3%, Oklahoma City Thunder at 1 .8%, Chicago Bulls at 1.7%, Toronto Raptors at 1% and finally New Orleans Pelicans at 0.5%.
Here is an ESPN graphic on how NBA Draft lottery odds change in 2019 pic.twitter.com/Jk8X7q0J3Z
The young Frenchman impresses the world of basketball. LeBron James himself said, “It’s not a unicorn, it’s a UFO.” For good reason: at only 19 years old, Victor Wembanyama is the best scorer, best rebounder and best blocker in the French championship. While on the night of May 16-17 no one will pronounce his name, since it is a question of which franchise will be able to choose first, the strong winger of 92 will be the number 1 choice, without a doubt.
If he does not know where he will land next season, “Wemby” displays great serenity. “Ten days until I know my future team. This is really crazy stuff,” he tweeted earlier this month.
10 days before knowing my future team. It’s really a crazy thing ????
Before confiding during a press conference: “A player destined to become a great player, no matter where he falls, it will be the right one. That’s why I don’t worry at all about where I’m going to land. Either way, it’ll be a good place. »
