Jeff Capel saw in Blake Griffin an NBA star in the making

→May 19: NBA Draft Lottery

→June 15: Early entrant withdrawal deadline (4 p.m.)

→June 25: NBA Draft

What is the Draft Lottery?
The Draft Lottery is held each year for the league’s 14 non-playoff teams to determine which teams will be awarded the top three picks in the June Draft.

Selections four through 14 are determined in reverse order of the teams’ won-loss records.

How it works
Fourteen ping-pong balls numbered one to 14 are placed in a drum. There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, regardless of selected numerical order.

Before the lottery, 1,000 numerical combinations are assigned to the 14 lottery teams, with the most combinations going to the team with the worst record.

(One numerical combination is tossed out).

Four balls are then drawn one at a time to generate a four-digit combination.

The team that has been assigned that combination will receive the first pick.

The balls are placed back in the drum, and the process is repeated to determine which teams will select second and third.

By Darnell Mayberry

How Much Will Griffin Make?: $4,983,480
Under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft is slotted to make $4,152,900 in his first year’s salary, according to the rookie scale contracts. NBA rules, however, permit teams to sign draft picks for as little as 80 percent of the scale salary or up to 120 percent. Since teams often sign players for up to the max, Blake Griffin’s first-year salary will be $4,983,480 if he is the top overall selection.