New York Liberty Wins Top Pick In 2021 WNBA Draft
By missing the 2020 WNBA Playoffs, New York, Dallas, Atlanta and Indiana qualified for the Lottery drawing. Lottery odds were based on the cumulative records of the Liberty, Wings, Dream and Fever over the two most recent regular seasons (2019 and 2020).
The Lottery was conducted at the NBA office in Secaucus, New Jersey, and the results were televised on ESPN during halftime of its telecast of the DePaul vs. Louisville women’s college basketball game.
New York, which won the WNBA Draft Lottery presented by State Farm for the second consecutive year and for the second time in franchise history, entered the Lottery with the most chances to land the top pick (442 out of 1,000). After winning the Lottery for the 2020 WNBA Draft presented by State Farm, the team used the No. 1 overall pick to select Sabrina Ionescu.
A representative from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young was in attendance to oversee the Lottery process.
2021 WNBA DRAFT LOTTERY RESULTS
| Team | Combined 2019-2020 Record | Chances (out of 1,000) |
| 1. New York | 12-44 | 442 |
| 2. Dallas | 18-38 | 178 |
| 3. Atlanta | 15-41 | 276 |
| 4. Indiana | 19-37 | 104 |
The order of selection for the remainder of the first round as well as the second and third round is in inverse order of the teams’ respective regular-season records solely from 2020.
The following is the remaining order of the first round, as determined by 2020.
REMAINING ORDER FOR FIRST ROUND
5. Dallas from Washington (9-13) via New York (Charles, Walker-Kimbrough, 4/15/20) (Hill, 4/15/20)
6. Phoenix from Connecticut (10-12) (Bonner, 2/11/20)
7. Dallas from Chicago (12-10) (Stevens, Samuelson, 2/14/20)
8. Chicago from Phoenix (13-9) via Dallas (Diggins-Smith, 2/12/20) (Ndour, 2/12/20)
9. Minnesota (14-8)
10. Los Angeles (15-7)
11. Seattle (18-4)
12. Las Vegas (18-4)
Jason Slack Is a Senior Sports Writer for the Sports Core Network and also part of the Sports Core Report.
