Lucky socks, a fishhook and pickup hoops: How the ...

playThe moment the Wizards won the NBA draft lottery (0:44)Take a look at the moment the Wizards claimed the top pick in the NBA draft lottery. (0:44) JOHN WALL WAS sitting at the Adorn Bar in the Four Seasons. It was Sunday morning, and the No. 1 selection in the 2010 draft was picking at the bacon on his plate and explaining his superstitions: They were underneath his crisp navy blue and red Howard University Air Jordan 14 exclusives, he said. "I've always had to play in a pair of Hanes crew socks from Walmart, under my NBA socks," Wall told ESPN. "And they got to be ultra cushioned. I need them." Wall was at the restaurant in downtown Chicago representing his former team, the Washington Wizards, at perhaps the most pivotal point they've had in a generation -- since he arrived as a prized prospect 16 years ago. In between bites, Wall described his beloved good luck charm: a necklace his late mother wore. He last had it on Jan. 29, the night the Wizards celebrated his career. The clamp broke, however. Fortunately, he has a backup: a tattoo on his neck of his mother wearing the necklace. Just as he pointed to his neck tattoo, a server dropped a metal tray of greens right in front of him, a thunderous clang echoing above the chatter of the patrons. "Did you see that?" Wall asked, astounded at the jarring spill. Was this an omen -- an ominous sign of impending bad luck? John Wall, the Wizards' No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft, was the team's representative on the podium during the 2026 draft lottery. Kory Powell for ESPNThere is, of course, a reason for "The Curse O' Les Boulez," as former Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser coined it to aptly describe years of calamity and foul luck. Washington hasn't advanced to the conference finals since 1979, when the then-Bullets lost in the NBA Finals one year after winning the franchise's only championship. And the Wizards, in a complete teardown, have lost a total of 196 games over the past three seasons. A year ago, the Wizards shared the best odds to land Cooper Flagg with the top pick but slipped all the way to the sixth slot. The Wizards had been meticulous for years -- losing and planning and losing some more, all for this moment. Which is why Wall was wearing the cushioned socks and talking about his mom's necklace. ESPN was granted exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the Wizards throughout the draft lottery weekend, from Wall to their front office, seeking to capture a full view of an organization at its most tenuous time. Either they'd fall, yet again, delaying once more the NBA's most arduous rebuild, or they'd strike lottery gold and break in an instant a spell of misfortune that had lasted for decades. "This one feels like it's a lot more like, 'We need to do this!'" said Wall, who wanted a better result than when he was previously the team representative in 2011, when Washington got the sixth pick used on Jan Vesely. "I need it. That's what everybody keeps telling me. You better get it. I hope I bring the good luck. It ain't like I can hit a button and we get it." Four hours later, they got it. Washington became the first team to win the lottery after finishing with the league's worst record (17-65) since the NBA revamped the lottery format in 2019. It was the franchise's first lottery win since Wall Dougie'd his way into the hearts of D.C. fans in 2010. And it represents the next step in a franchise transformation that saw the Wizards trade for All-Stars Trae Young and Anthony Davis earlier this year. play0:34John Wall's epic pregame danceWizards guard John Wall shows off some moves during pregame introductions back in 2010. When Michael Winger, the president of Monumental Basketball and the Wizards' lone representative inside the lottery's drawing room, realized the franchise had won the coveted No. 1 pick, he did not dance or emote, largely because there was no one for him to celebrate with. Instead, Winger quietly gave a thumbs up and opened his journal, which includes a photo of his wife and four kids, and wrote the winning sequence of ping-pong balls -- 4, 2, 1, 13 -- along with the combinations of the other three lottery picks. "I have a terrible memory and I write down as much as I can because I know that tomorrow I will not remember what happened today," Winger said. "Not quite like the movie 'Memento.' But not too far removed." After the winning ping-pong numbers, Winger jotted down what he couldn't blurt out in the room. SOME 1,300 MILES away, at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, Wizards owner Ted Leonsis was celebrating Mother's Day with his wife, Lynn. They hoped they would have something more to celebrate in just a matter of hours. To burn off his nervous energy, Leonsis decided to go for a morning run, choosing to jog up and down a nearby drawbridge instead of his usual route along the beach. As Leonsis cooled down -- ping-pong-ball combinations bouncing around his brain -- he saw what he thought was a needlelike

Lucky socks, a fishhook and pickup hoops: How the ...

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