Stunning moment Cleveland Cavaliers won LeBron James draft pick as retirement rumours gather pace
Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated from the NBA Playoffs by the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday and their season ended at the conference semi-final stage, one round further than their most famous draft pick.
LeBron James was the first pick in the 2003 NBA Draft and was selected by the Cavaliers. With James top of every team's wish list, Cleveland got lucky.
The order of the top draft picks is established by the Draft Lottery, in which teams are drawn based on their performance in the regular season.
Broadly, the worst team has the best chance of the top pick and, in years when the number one pick is all but universally agreed upon by the teams and their experts, that can be all-important.
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The Cavaliers had the joint-highest chance of being the lucky team in 2003 and their 22.5% hopes paid off with one of the greatest NBA players of all time.
Footage of the extraordinary moment has emerged and time has proved the Cavaliers front office right to be excited.
Ohio-born James went on to win the NBA championship four times with Miami Heat, Cleveland and the LA Lakers.
The Lakers were eliminated in the first round of this season's playoffs and the future of 40-year-old James has been speculated upon since their campaign ended.
"Speaking with Steve Nash, James admitted that he has much to consider this summer," reports Heavy.
"He has said that spending time with his family will be his top priority, and that he hasn’t had a conversation with his family about what his future holds with the Lakers or in the NBA."
James is still performing at a high level but time catches up with us all.
"He admitted that he hasn’t made a decision on what he plans to do moving forward," continues Heavy.
"James said it was something he had to sit down with his family, wife, and support group to speak about."
The Cavaliers were the joint-worst team in the NBA in 2002-03 and capitalised on a relatively high chance of coming out on top in the lottery.
But growing concern over teams tanking moved the NBA to rethink how those chances are calculated.
How the NBA Draft Lottery changed after LeBron
The weighted odds for the Draft Lottery were amended in 2005 and an overhaul that was implemented in 2019 increased the number of teams drawn via the lottery to the top of the draft order from three to four.
The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery went the way of the Dallas Mavericks, who were drawn in first place despite a 1.8% chance, one of the least likely lottery wins in NBA history.
Dallas were the tenth best team in the Western Conference but can now acquire the outstanding draft candidate, 18-year-old Duke shooting guard Cooper Flagg, when the NBA Draft begins in June.
Topics: NBA, Lebron James
Chris Nee