WNBA to hold draft lottery October 26
October 23, 2006 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) News Release
NEW YORK, Oct. 23, 2006 - The lottery to determine the top three picks in the 2007 WNBA Draft will be held on Thursday, October 26, the League announced today.
The Chicago Sky, who posted a regular season record of 5-29 in their inaugural season, has the best opportunity to secure one of the top three picks in the draft. The Minnesota Lynx, winners of last year's lottery, have the second best chance after finishing 10-24. The Charlotte Sting (11-23) and New York Liberty (11-23) have the next best odds, respectively, of landing one of the top three picks while the San Antonio Silver Stars (13-21) and Phoenix Mercury (18-16) round out the lottery-eligible teams.
WNBA officials and a representative from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young will conduct the Draft Lottery in New York City, which will include the six teams that did not qualify for the 2006 WNBA Playoffs. The lottery will establish the order of selection for the first six picks of the draft. The order of selection for the remainder of the first round as well as the second and third rounds is based on each team's finish during the 2006 regular season.
Fourteen balls numbered 1-14 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 six non-playoff teams based on their order of finish in the 2006 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, as well as the order of selection for the second and third round is determined by inverse order of their respective regular-season records.
Following are the chances - out of a possible 1,000 - for teams in the WNBA Draft Lottery:
2007 WNBA LOTTERY TEAMS
Team Record Chances (out of 1,000)
1. Chicago 5-29 410
2. Minnesota 10-24 256
3. Charlotte 11-23 129
4. New York 11-23 128
5. San Antonio 13-21 52
6. Phoenix 18-16 25
Following is the remaining order for the first round as determined by overall records from 2006:
REMAINING ORDER FOR FIRST ROUND
Team Record
7. Washington 18-16
8. Seattle 18-16
9. Houston 18-16
10. Indiana 21-13
11. Sacramento 21-13
12. Detroit 23-11
13. Los Angeles 25-9
14. Connecticut 26-8
In 2006, the WNBA concluded its historic tenth season with an action-packed WNBA Finals. The 2006 WNBA Finals presented by Vonage capped a playoff run in which the WNBA saw significant increases in attendance and viewership. The Finals, which aired live on ESPN2, saw the Detroit Shock top the Sacramento Monarchs in the first WNBA Finals match up ever to go to a fifth and deciding game.
Average attendance for the 2006 Finals was up +28% compared to a year ago while average attendance for the playoffs overall increased by +16%. The historic Game 5 featured a sellout crowd of 19,671 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI, the second largest crowd in WNBA Finals history. These increases followed closely on the heels of a strong second half of the regular season in which attendance throughout the league rose nearly 12% after the All-Star break. Television viewership also increased during the Finals. Detroit's Game 4 win at Sacramento was the second-most watched WNBA game in ESPN2 history and average viewership for the 2006 Finals was up +11% over that of 2005. As the preeminent women's sports league, the WNBA, which features 14 teams, is the destination for the best women's basketball players in the world. For more information, visit wnba.com.
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Women's National Basketball Association Stories from October 23, 2006
- Charlotte has third-most chances for top pick - Charlotte Sting
- WNBA to hold draft lottery October 26 - WNBA
- 2007 WNBA Draft Lottery approaching - Chicago Sky
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