For the NBA’s front offices, the NBA Draft Lottery is a very stressful moment. A seat at the table indicates that your team did not make the playoffs, and a game of ping pong balls may determine how good it will be in the future.
The teams have representatives there (or, in this case, virtually) to rejoice if they obtain one of the top picks, which is part of the pleasure of the Lottery. The flip side of that is disappointment when you don’t jump up, which happened to the Pelicans on Tuesday night, resulting in Swin Cash’s response stealing the show.
When the New Orleans Pelicans vice president of basketball operations and team development learned that her club would be picked 10th instead of first, she reacted as follows.
The Pelicans had a 4.5 percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick, and the most likely conclusion was No. 10, but Cash was definitely hoping for better luck. That happened in 2019, when New Orleans had a 6.3 percent chance of winning the No. 1 pick but did, earning the right to select Zion Williamson, the franchise’s new cornerstone.
Cash posted a picture on Twitter after the lottery, saying, “Forgive me NOLA I’m pretty competitive…The lords still working on me… See y’all draft night. Let’s go.”
