SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 10, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — The Utah Jazz are sending 1983 lottery pick Thurl Bailey to Chicago to represent the team in the NBA Draft Lottery.
Bailey, the No. 7 overall pick in the 1983 NBA Draft, ended up playing nine seasons with the Jazz and now works as part of Utah’s broadcast team.
“Hey, Jazz nation,” Bailey says in video posted by the Jazz’s social media team. “Guess where I’m headed? I’m going to Chicago to represent the Utah Jazz at the NBA Draft Lottery. Wish me luck!”
The Jazz are among the 14 teams that missed the playoffs this season, qualifying them for the lottery. The event takes place at 1 p.m. MDT Sunday on ABC.
Utah finished with the eighth-worst record during the 2023-24 season, which gives the Jazz a 6% chance of landing the No. 1 pick and a 26.3% chance of landing one of the top four picks.
If the Jazz do not get one of the top 10 picks, it will be conveyed to the Thunder as part of the salary-saving deal that sent Derrick Favors to Oklahoma City in 2021.
Here are the teams participating in the lottery and their odds of getting the No. 1 pick:
- Detroit Pistons, 14%
- Washington Wizards, 14%
- Charlotte Hornets, 13.3%
- Portland Trail Blazers, 13.2%
- San Antonio Spurs, 10.5%
- Toronto Raptors, 9%
- Memphis Grizzlies, 7.5%
- Utah Jazz, 6%
- Houston Rockets (from Brooklyn), 4.5%
- Atlanta Hawks, 3%
- Chicago Bulls, 2%
- Houston Rockets, 1.5%
- Sacramento Kings, 0.8%
- Golden State Warriors, 0.7%
After leading North Carolina State to a national championship in 1983, Bailey joined the Jazz and quickly became a popular player in Utah.
The 6-foot-11 forward twice finished second in the NBA Sixth Man of the Year voting, averaging 19.6 points in 1987-88 and 19.5 points in 1988-89 while playing in all 82 games both seasons.
Bailey played in 665 games with the Jazz before being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Tyrone Corbin in November 1991. He missed only four games during his nine full seasons in Utah.
Bailey will be seated on stage with representatives of the non-playoff teams hoping the pingpong balls bounce their way. Under the revamped draft lottery format that began in 2019, the team with the worst record will receive no worse than the fifth pick.
The actual lottery takes place in a separate room, conducted by accounting firm Ernst & Young.
The draft selections for the remainder of the first round (Nos. 15-30) and the entire second round (Nos. 30-60) are determined by reverse order of regular-season record. Each NBA team gets one selection in the first round and one selection in the second round.
