Teams have dreams of moving up in the NBA draft lottery.
Not the Lakers. They were elated to stay where they were.
After finishing with the NBA’s second-worst record, the Lakers ended up with the second overall pick in next month’s draft, courtesy of four ping-pong balls drawn out of a plastic hopper with a 2-3-7-14 combination, one of 199 assigned to the Lakers ahead of time.
It came after Philadelphia already won the top pick with a 1-10-5-9 combo and led to the most relieved man in the NBA world Tuesday: Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak.