The Atlanta Hawks surprisingly won the NBA Draft lottery on Sunday, giving the franchise the top overall selection for the first time in 49 years. (More Basketball News)
Atlanta had just a three per cent chance to win the lottery after going ♈36-46 this season and finishing in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.
The Hawks’ campaign ended with a 131-116 road loss to the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Play-In Tournament on April 17.
“It’s 🎉a significant part of any team building strategies, so this is exciting,” Atlanta general manager Land❀ry Field said Sunday.
Atlanta had never won the Draft lottery and will be picking first for the first 💮time since sele💞cting David Thompson in 1975.
Thompson, however, went on to sign with the Denveꦐr Nuggets when they were part of the American Basketball Associat🦄ion.
“It’s been a while,” Fields sa⭕id. “That turned o👍ut a little differently than hopefully what we’ll be expecting here for the future.
“But excited about this (draft) class, excited about continuing to build what we got g𒀰oing in Atlanta.”
The Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards each had the best odds to win the lottery at 14 per cent, followed by the Charlotte Hornets💞 (13.3), P♔ortland Trial Blazers (13.2) and San Antonio Spurs (10.5).
Wash🦋ington will instead pick at No. 2 followed by Hou꧋ston, San Antonio and Detroit.
The Spurs selected NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 overall pick last June.
This year’s dra𒆙ft will be held June 26-27 in Brooklyn.
