Pat Williams, Magic hoping for some old-school luck in draft lottery
In the 30-year history of the NBA draft lottery, few people have experienced the thrill of victory as often as Pat Williams.
That doesn't mean, even at age 75, he's not open to doing things differently.
Williams will be serving in an unaccustomed capacity Tuesday when the Orlando Magic are among the 14 teams participating in the annual event that determines the draft order. The man who has been an integral part of the franchise since its founding will be in the back room watching which pingpong balls come up in which order in the hopper.
Magic chief executive officer Alex Martins is taking over Williams' usual spot on the panel of team representatives during the made-for-TV portion of the event before Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
"I asked if I could do it because I've never been there, never seen how it all works," Williams said of being in the nerve center. "So that's going to be an exciting opportunity. I'm looking forward to that. Plus, I'll have one last chat with the pingpong balls. I get to see them and talk to them just before they go into the machine."
By finishing with the fifth-worst record in the league last season at 25-57, the Magic have only an 8.8 percent chance of winning the lottery, compared with a better than 25 percent chance of landing the fifth spot in the draft June 25. But until the Cleveland Cavaliers came up winners three of the past four years, the Magic were the poster franchise for good fortune by nabbing the top picks in 1992, 1993 and 2004.
So if anyone can have a conversation with a bunch of inanimate objects and not come off as beyond eccentric, it's Williams, who also was a lottery winner in 1986 while with the Philadelphia 76ers.
"All the Orlando balls will be dumped in at once," he said. "I'll have a little pep talk with them before they go in and tell them we need just one of them to do their job. And if they do, they get to live in a trophy case the rest of their life."
The first of the balls in Williams' trophy case was the one that resulted in the Magic getting Shaquille O'Neal before their fourth season. A year later, after barely missing the playoffs in O'Neal's rookie season, the Magic overcame the longest odds of any team to prevail again, much to the consternation of the NBA's commissioner at the time.
"I knew right then on the spot that David Stern was not happy," said Williams, the general manager of the Magic then. "Everybody was happy in '92 that the struggling Magic ended up with Shaq, but they were not happy the next year when we had another elite player at our fingertips. So right after that, the rules changed. Call them the Orlando rules."
Despite failing to move up in the lottery either of the last two years, the Magic have taken players who have contributed immediately in guard Victor Oladipo and forward Aaron Gordon. Williams has called the selection of Oladipo at No. 2 in 2013 the equivalent of winning another lottery, largely because the player picked ahead of him -- forward Anthony Bennett -- has done so little with both the Cavaliers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Except for the Timberwolves, the franchise with the best odds of being announced Tuesday night as picking first is the New York Knicks, who haven't had that honor since winning the very first lottery. Last week marked the 30th anniversary of Dave DeBusschere pumping his fist in excitement over the Knicks landing the right to draft Patrick Ewing while people elsewhere shook their fists in anger.
Back then, the lottery consisted of only seven envelopes bearing the logos of each team. The envelopes mixed up in a metal drum before being pulled out and placed on an easel. The Golden State Warriors had the worst record of the seven teams, yet they ended up with the seventh pick.
"Poor Alvin Attles," Williams said, referring to the Warriors' longtime coach and executive. "As I said to a newspaper back then, Alvin looked like he was hit over the head with an axe handle. He was just crushed."
The Magic are hoping Martins, who was their original director of media relations, will have a much happier reaction in a lottery where the Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers are bound to be the center of attention nationally.
"Alex has been part of this for the better part of 25 years now," Williams said. "So he's seen it all. He'll know exactly how to handle it. If we win, my advice is always to go ahead and explode. Don't try to act cool. Leap out of that chair. Thrust your arms up in the air."
You can follow Ken Hornack on Twitter @HornackFSFla or email him at khornack32176@gmail.com.
