LA Clippers, the perennially beleaguered franchise moved up from having the third-best shot at the No. 1 overall selection, ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Clippers will able to rebuild their franchise by grabbing Oklahoma's Blake Griffin in the Draft come June 26.
The last time, the Clippers were the top pick in 1998, they used it to draft Michael Olowokandi, who turned out to be a bust and was heavily criticized.
For the sixth straight year, the worst team wasn't able to hold on with the top pick. The Sacramento Kings, with the league's worst record, were slotted first overall with a 25% chance at the top selection — yet dropped to fourth. The Washington Wizards also fell, from second to fifth.
Having identical 19-63 record, LA Clippers lost a tiebreaker with the Washington Wizards. In losing, the Clippers would receive one fewer combination -- 177 -- than the Wizards' 178. Had the Clippers won the tiebreaker, the top pick would have been the Wizards' combination.
Memphis was another team that benefitted from losing their tiebreaker on April 19, as the Grizzlies finished with an identical 24-58 record with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Had the Grizzlies won, the Timberwolves would have had that sequence of digits.
Since this system went into place in 1994, only two teams — Orlando in 2004 for Dwight Howard and Cleveland in 2003 for LeBron James— with the NBA's worst record one year have actually won the No. 1 pick the next.
Here are past year's lottery winners and their rank before the lottery.
2000
#1 - New Jersey: 7th
#2 - Vancouver: 4th
#3 - LA Clippers: worst
2001
#1 - Washington: 3rd
#2 - LA Clippers: 8th
#3 - Atlanta: 5th
2002
#1 - Houston: 5th
#2 - Chicago: worst
#3 - Golden state: worst
2003
#1 - Cleveland: worst
#2 - Memphis: 6th
#3 - Denver: 2nd
2004
#1 - Orlando: worst
#2 - LA Clippers: 4th
#3 - Chicago: 2nd
2005
#1 - Milwaukee: 6th
#2 - Atlanta: worst
#3 - Portland: 5th
2006
#1 - Toronto: 5th
#2 - New York: 2nd
#3 - Charlotte: 3rd
2007
#1 - Portland: 7th
#2 - Seatlle: 5th
#3 - Atlanta: 4th
2008
#1 - Chicago: 9th
#2 - Miami: worst
#3 - Minnesota: 3rd
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