The Washington Wizards won the NBA draft lottery on Sunday and secured the right to select first overall in this year’s draft. According to CBS News, this is their first time picking first since selecting John Wall in that spot in 2010.
Key Takeaways
The Washington Wizards won the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery, despite having only a 14% chance of winning. This marks their first time picking first since selecting John Wall in 2010.
- The Wizards had a 50-50 shot at either a top-four pick or the No. 5 spot
- Utah Jazz will select second, followed by Memphis Grizzlies and Chicago Bulls
- Los Angeles Clippers secured fifth via trade with Indiana Pacers
- Four front-runners for No. 1 pick: BYU's AJ Dybantsa, Duke's Cameron Boozer, Kansas' Darryn Peterson, North Carolina's Caleb Wilson
Despite having only a 14% chance of winning No. 1, tied with Brooklyn and Indiana for the best odds, the Wizards had basically a 50-50 chance of getting either a top-four pick or the No. 5 spot. The Wizards went 17-65 this season and allowed Miami's Bam Adebayo to score 83 points for the league's second-highest single-game total ever, as reported by PBS.
The draft lottery results were announced at Chicago’s Navy Pier on Sunday. Four candidates are generally considered front-runners to be the No. 1 pick: BYU's AJ Dybantsa, Duke's Cameron Boozer, Kansas' Darryn Peterson, and North Carolina's Caleb Wilson.
This was the eighth, and likely final, year of this version of an NBA draft lottery. According to Fox News, framework fell into place last month on changes meant to further discourage tanking, with the league’s Board of Governors expected to ratify that plan in the next few weeks.
How this summary was created
This summary synthesizes reporting from 4 independent publishers using AI. All sources are cited and linked below. NewsBalance is a news aggregator and media literacy tool, not a news publisher. AI-generated content may contain errors or inaccuracies — always verify important information with the original sources.