The 2004 NBA Draft Lottery
In 2004, the league still believed that centers won championships. The 2003-04 season had just finished in which a defense and teamwork first team had won the NBA title – the superstar-less Detroit Pistons. Plus, we were a few months away from the U.S. getting destroyed by Argentina’s kick and space offense, so shooting wasn’t quite as worshiped in the NBA the way it is today.
The 2004 NBA draft had two potential superstar centers: Emeka Okafor from UCONN and Dwight Howard from Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. Okafor was viewed as the more polished center and ready to contribute right away. Howard was viewed as the prospect with the most potential. If a team had one of the two centers, they would consider it a successful draft, that’s how good Howard and Okafor appeared to scouts at the time.
The draft lottery was won by the Orlando Magic, who had the worst record in the league. The Magic had Tracy McGrady, an injured Grant Hill and not much more. McGrady wanted out of Orlando, so the Magic would have been starting over essentially anyway. I believe this was not fixed as the team would have likely been fine without Howard. The Magic ended up getting Steve Francis for McGrady so there’s really no reason why Stern would have wanted to force Dwight Howard to the Magic Kingdom.
The Suns were also not screwed in this lottery. Phoenix was projected at the 7 spot and drafted Luol Deng 7th. Later Deng was traded for cash for no good reason at all. The only conspiracy is that Robert Sarver was trying to prevent the Suns from winning.