Inside the ‘roller-coaster’ NBA draft lottery room, where three was the Sixers’ lucky number

The Inquirer was one of 14 media outlets inside the drawing room, where assistant general manager Ned Cohen watched the Sixers move up to the third pick.

Rolando Blackman and the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA draft lottery, while the Sixers will pick third. Read moreNam Y. Huh / AP

by Gina Mizell

Published May 13, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET

CHICAGO — Ned Cohen walked into the NBA draft lottery room focused on the number three.

It was already the Sixers’ assistant general manager’s lucky number long before Monday night. Then, when Cohen checked into his hotel, his room number had a three in it. And naturally, every ping-pong-ball combination assigned to the Sixers — which he would meticulously track as the team’s representative inside the secret drawing room — began with a three.

So Cohen maintained hope even when combinations tied to the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs shockingly came up first and second, which pushed those teams up the draft order and torpedoed the odds that the Sixers would keep their top-six protected pick. And then, on the third draw, a three shot to the top of the machine. Then a seven, five, and 10.

Cohen stared forward as the Sixers’ were announced in the room, draping any excitement or relief in stoicism. By the time those results were revealed on live television — complete with ESPN mistakenly announcing the Sixers had lost the pick, then quickly correcting the error — Cohen let himself grin and chuckle with his fellow sequestered representatives. Following the Sixers’ dreadful 24-58 season, a chaotic, high-stakes draft lottery serendipitously bumped the Sixers up to the third pick.

“Oh, that poor guy,” Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said of Cohen minutes after learning of the results. “Only after did I realize the roller-coaster he went through.”

This year’s draft lottery came with immense intrigue, primarily because its winner gets the opportunity to select generational prospect Cooper Flagg. But the second-most-prominent storyline was if the Sixers would keep their pick, or if it would land seventh or lower and go to the already-loaded Oklahoma City Thunder because of a 2020 trade. The Sixers entered the night with a 64% chance of hanging onto their selection, and, thanks to odds in the lottery that were flattened in 2019, a 10.5% chance of landing at No. 1.

Morey said the Sixers chose Cohen as their drawing-room representative because of his experience working in the league office — including inside the room for this event.

And the number three was not the only lucky charm on which Cohen leaned.

Tucked in the pocket of his blue suit jacket was a homemade sign from his two young children, complete with a border made of red pipe cleaner and a message of “Good luck Sixers … and ‘Dada.’” Also inside, a butterfly made from iron-on fuse beads, a symbol the family connects to the late mother of Ned’s wife.

“Before I was leaving yesterday,” Cohen said, “my wife is like, ‘You have to take these things.’ … That was very meaningful.”

Leading into Monday night’s drawing, Sixers coach Nick Nurse said he felt nerves similar to “a really tough road game.” And though Morey said he has become comfortable with emotionally handling situations he cannot control, he acknowledged that “as it got close to the lottery, my cool dropped.”

The Inquirer was one of 14 media outlets inside the drawing room, where, before entering, one needed to surrender any technological devices that could be used to communicate with anybody outside the room. Easygoing piano music — including Nat King Cole’s “L-O-V-E” — was in the background as those invited filtered inside and glanced at the eight boards listing the 1,001 possible combinations and their corresponding teams. Among those Cohen made small talk with was Thunder executive Sam Presti. Cohen then settled into his designated spot on the far left side of the first of three rows of tables in front of the lottery machine.

The process was explained in exhaustive detail, including that this type of machine was used for state lotteries and that 10 seconds would elapse before each ball was pulled. An official opened a briefcase and dropped the balls in one by one, the room so quiet one could hear them bouncing as they mixed.

The first combination pulled was 10-14-11-7, for a Mavericks team that had 1.8% chance of winning the lottery and had been mocked for months for inexplicably trading megastar Luka Dončić. A single clap from Dallas assistant general manager Matt Riccardi pierced through the silence and he shook hands with Portland Trail Blazers assistant general manager Andrae Patterson and Chicago Bulls manager of basketball strategy and analytics Faizan Hasnany. Then came 12-13-11-5, linked to the San Antonio Spurs, another stunner from the franchise that won the Victor Wembanyama lottery two years ago.

Then came the three, and the rest of the combination assigned to the Sixers. Cohen clocked the match in his mind before it was officially confirmed by the board. The 3-5-2-11 corresponding to the Charlotte Hornets rounded out the top four picks, and the drawing was over.

After that was about an hour of waiting for the live television reveal, which Cohen called “bizarre.” Officials slid the iconic team logo cards into envelopes and sealed them. A big-screen television rolled into the room. Food was available in the back. And the team representatives rose from their seats to mingle again throughout the room, before congregating when the broadcast began.

“Fortunately, we had time to relish the outcome,” Cohen said.

Not so for the Sixers brass outside the other ballroom for the public reveal, which goes from picks 14 to 1 to build tension. When ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi — a Phoenixville native and Temple graduate, no less — announced the Sixers had lost their pick, Nurse said he and general manager Elton Brand looked at each other, confused. Morey, though, “was locked in. He knew we weren’t out,” Nurse said.

The already-in-the-know group, however, collectively laughed at the blunder. Cohen smiled when Negandhi quickly corrected himself, and the camera panned to Sixers onstage representative Jared McCain.

But when NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum announced to the rest of the world that the Sixers would pick third, Cohen’s calm demeanor returned. He got a final handshake from Riccardi as the doors reopened.

Cohen traveled up an escalator to the broadcast room to reconvene with his colleagues, then stepped onto the lottery stage to pose for photos. Negandhi came over to apologize for his snafu.

“It was almost the perfect way it went down, given the tough year we had,” Morey said. “That we got what seemed to be just horrific news.”

Instead, the Sixers lucked out. And perhaps they should thank the charms tucked inside Cohen’s pocket — and his attachment to the No. 3.

“[I was] hoping for the best,” Cohen said. “And when a three popped out … we knew we had a good shot after that.”