Next week in Secaucus, N.J., 13 NBA teams will send representatives to watch ping pong balls determine their futures. Fourteen ping pong balls rattling in a drum drawn four times will change the fortunes for a franchise and make their future either sublime or bleak.
There is nothing anyone can do about this. The numbers that get drawn from that vat are out of everyone’s control. All the analytics and careful and reasoned decision making come down to blind luck.
The NBA Draft Lottery sends executives obsessed with control and certainty into a deep sweat over something they have no control over.