Opportunity presented itself to the Orlando Magic in 1993. A year earlier, they won the NBA Draft Lottery and ended up picking Shaquille O’Neal first overall in the 1992 NBA Draft. O’Neal won Rookie of the Year honors and led the Magic to a 41-41 record. However, they missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker and were headed to the Draft Lottery again.
That meant the Magic had a chance to own the No.1 pick in the draft in consecutive seasons. However, because Orlando was the best non-playoff team, they had the longest odds of winning the sweepstakes.
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“If we win the lottery, it will be like World War III breaking out with Switzerland winning,” Magic general manager Pat Williams said. “Our ball is totally overmatched.”
The Magic only had one of the 66 ping pong balls inside the bin
On one side, it would be history because no team had ever won the NBA Draft Lottery in consecutive years. However, it would also create controversy because the Magic weren’t really a lottery team, per se, with a .500 record, considering they were one win shy of making the postseason. Not to mention that they just added Shaq a year earlier. However, while the possibility existed, it was like a needle in a haystack.
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The Dallas Mavericks, who went 11-71 that year, had the worst record and had the most ping pong balls at 11. The 19-63 Minnesota Timberwolves were the 2nd worst team, and they had 10 ping pong balls. The Washington Bullets, which won only 20 games and were the 3rd worst, were given nine balls. Orlando had one out of the 66 balls inside the lottery bin, but as fate would have it, their ball got picked.
“What can I say — it’s Magic,” Orlando general manager Williams mused after bounding offstage with a wide grin.”Suddenly, we went from No. 11 to No. 1.”
Birth of the “Orlando rule”
While it was magic for Orlando, there was an outcry everywhere. The Magic didn’t need the No.1 pick, so after picking Chris Webber first overall, they traded him to the Golden State Warriors for the No.3 pick, Penny Hardaway, plus three first-round picks. In the aftermath, then NBA Commissioner David Stern mentioned the possibility of changing the system to prevent a similar situation.
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“We’re going to have an interesting series of internal meetings this summer about the lottery to see if it’s as good as it should be,” Stern said. “We’re open to any improvements that would seem to make sense, but we think we’re pretty close to what is the best system under the circumstances, if not the best.”
And so the “Orlando rule” was born, as Williams coined it. Beginning in 1994, the team with the worst record saw its odds increase from 16.67 percent to 25 percent, while the best non-playoff team’s odds became longer at 0.5 percent from 1.52 percent. Those odds were used until 2018, when it was changed to their current percentages. No team won the lottery in consecutive years again until 2013 and 2014, when the Cleveland Cavaliers had their own version of “magic.”
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 15, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.