NBA has used variety of methods to determine No. 1 pick

The NBA draft lottery determines the first three picks in the NBA draft. Pingpong balls, numbered 1-14, are placed in a drum. Four balls are drawn to form a combination (example: 14-3-7-11). There are 1,001 combinations. Each team receives a set number of combinations based on their record. The worst team gets 250 combinations, the best team five. After the first combination is drawn, the process is repeated to determine the second and third pick.

How it evolved

The NBA has used various methods to determine its draft order. Here's a look at how they have evolved:

• 1947-65: Teams drafted in reverse order of their finish the previous season, based on record. Each team, however, had the right to forfeit its first-round choice to exercise a territorial pick on a local college player.

• 1966-84: After the league abandoned the territorial draft, a coin flip between the last-place teams of its two divisions determined the first pick. The rest of the teams drafted in inverse order of finish.

• 1985-89: In response to suspicions that teams — most notably Houston in 1983 — had lost games purposely to position themselves for the top pick, a lottery system was instituted.

For the first two years, all seven non-playoff teams had an equal shot at the first pick. Cards were placed in a Plexiglas hopper and turned. Commissioner David Stern then pulled them out one at a time, with the first team drawn getting the first pick, and so on.

Starting in 1987, the system was tweaked so that the lottery determined the order of drafting for only the top three teams, with the remaining non-playoff teams picking in inverse order of finish.

• 1990-present: With expansion increasing the lottery teams to 11, the league switched to drawing ping pong balls out of air-compressed machines. Originally, the team with the worst record had 11 chances out of 66 to get the top pick, with the remaining teams having one fewer chance, respectively.

In 1994, in response to Orlando getting the top pick despite having the best record among the lottery teams, the odds were weighted more in favor of the worst teams, a system that still stands. Today, the best team of the 14 that do not make the playoffs has only a 0.5 percent chance of earning the top pick. The worst team has a 25 percent chance.