WNBA's Kara Lawson to provide commentary for WNBA Draft Lottery on NBA TV
November 29, 2004 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) News Release
NEW YORK, November 29, 2004 â Sacramento Monarchs dynamic guard Kara Lawson and NBA TV's Andre Aldridge will provide commentary and analysis for the WNBA Draft Lottery, which will air live on NBA TV on Wednesday, December 1. The Lottery will determine the top three team picks for the 2005 WNBA Draft.
WNBA President Val Ackerman will announce the results live on NBA TV during halftime of the Philadelphia 76ers at San Antonio Spurs game at 8:30 p.m. ET. The San Antonio Silver Stars, with a regular season record of 9-25, have the best opportunity to gain one of the top three slots decided by Wednesday's draft lottery. The Houston Comets, who finished with a 13-21 record, and the Indiana Fever, who posted a win-loss record of 15-19, have the second and third best chances, respectively, of landing one of the top three picks.
An Associated Press All-American in 2003, Lawson was selected fifth overall by the Detroit Shock in the 2003 WNBA Draft before being traded to Sacramento where she's played in all 68 Monarchs regular-season games the past two seasons. The Draft Lottery will be conducted by WNBA officials and representatives from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young at the NBA Entertainment studios in Secaucus, N.J., and will include the five teams that did not qualify for the 2004 WNBA Playoffs. The lottery is weighted to favor the teams with the poorer records. The lottery will establish the order of selection for the first round of the draft, with the order of selection for the second and third rounds based on each team's finish during the 2004 regular season.
Fourteen balls numbered 1 through 14 will be placed in a lottery machine and mixed. There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to their order of selection. One thousand of those combinations will be assigned to the five non-playoff teams based on their order of finish in the 2004 regular season. The remaining combination will be unassigned.
Four balls will then be drawn to the top to determine a four-digit combination. The team that has been assigned that four-ball combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The four balls will then be placed back into the machine, and the process will be repeated to determine the second and third picks. If the one unassigned combination is drawn, the balls will be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated until an assigned combination is drawn.
The first-round order of selection for the teams that do not win one of the top three picks will be determined by inverse order of their respective regular-season records. Following are the chances, out of 1,000, for teams in the WNBA Draft Lottery:
2005 WNBA LOTTERY TEAMS
Team 2004 Record Lottery Chances (out of 1,000)
1. San Antonio 9-25 420
2. Houston 13-21 261
3. Indiana 15-19 167
4. Charlotte 16-18 97
5. Phoenix 17-17 55
In 2004, for the sixth consecutive season, more than 2 million fans attended WNBA games. As the preeminent women's sports league, the WNBA is the destination for the best women's basketball players in the world. For more information, visit wnba.com.
Women's National Basketball Association Stories from November 29, 2004
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
