While the NBA plays for the Ring, the excluded players start “playing” Victor Wembanyama

We need to go back to 2003, the year of LeBron James’ landing in the NBA, to remember one Lottery awaited by owners and general managers with the feverish eagerness of these days. While the contender enter the heart of the race for the title, the teams that are ousted are already projected for the evening of May 16, when the order of picks for the 2023 Draft will be defined by drawing lots. And there are several franchises – the “worst” of this season, remembering that the probabilities are (simplifying) inversely proportional to the victories obtained – which are approaching that date aware of the sliding door it represents. The why has a name and a surname, Victor Wembanyama.

If twenty years ago the object of desire was a young high school student from Ohio, that LeBron James who would soon legitimize the nickname of “Chosen One”, is now an enfant prodige arriving from Boulogne-Levallois, a Parisian company of modest size that has become capital (for hire) of world basketball, precisely due to the presence of Wembanyama. “Whoever chooses him in the Draft will increase the value of the franchise by 500 million dollars,” an NBA executive told Adrian Wojnarowski (Espn), and it is a lucid snapshot of the enormous expectations placed on the young French talent.

Wemby, however, not the only five-star prospect, as they say overseas, among upcoming players from collegiate basketball, Overtime Elite and G League. For the second choice, insiders predict a head-to-head between Scoot Henderson And Brandon Millerfollowed by (not necessarily in order) Amen Thompson, Jarace Walker and Ausar Thompson. All possible future stars that appear obscured by the light of Wembanyama, but which are actually an integral part of the stakes in the 2023 Draft.

Speaking of the prize pool, it’s up to the participants. On May 16, the NBA’s Pythia Lottery will determine the order in which teams pick on the night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center a month later. Passing through a complex extraction mechanism (here an explanation of the probabilities and here of the procedures), the most popular teams for the very first calls are, in order: Detroit (17 wins), San Antonio (22), Houston (22) , Charlotte (27), Portland (33) and Orlando (34).

And the question that has been monopolizing attention for months is, inevitably, where Wembanyama will end up. He will join the young core of Pistons, Rockets or Magic? Or will he join LaMelo Ball at the Hornets? The Blazers option, alongside Lillard, is also intriguing. As well as Popovich’s Spurs. In the Lottery, however, the only certainty is that anything can happen, or almost.

In fact, even those who fought to the end for the playoffs will have a chance to transform a handful of percentage points into the “hit of” of the century. Chicago in 2008 (1.7 percent) and Cleveland in 2011 (2.8 percent), for example, received Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving as a lucky gift; this year maybe it could happen, with one of the first four calls, in Dallas, Oklahoma City or New Orleans, to name a few. And this is also the beauty of the Lottery. Its unpredictability, fantasize about every scenario. And, in 2023, a stake (perhaps) never seen before.