I'm pretty sure his idea included nonlottery teams because there was a lot of hubbub when he said that Dallas could and should win the 1st pick that year because of their record.
I'm too lazy, so I'll just include the 1 and 2 for the last decade: 1998 - Michael Olowokandi /// Mike Bibby 1999 - Elton Brand /// Steve Francis 2000 - Kenyon Martin /// Stromile Swift 2001 - Kwame Brown /// Tyson Chandler 2002 - Yao Ming /// Jay Williams 2003 - LeBron James /// Darko Milicic 2004 - Dwight Howard /// Emeka Okafur 2005 - Andrew Bogut /// Marvin Williams 2006 - Andrea Bargnani /// Lamarcus Aldridge 2007 - LeBron James Sr /// Kevin Durant But how exactly is the draft a great equalizer? Certainly seems like a roll of the dice to me. How many of the teams drafting any of the plays above became contenders, because of the player selected? Hell, how many couldn't have replicated the same output or even more from a player selected later? Orlando and Cleveland? Anyone else deserve to be placed on that list? Obviously last year's pick is still in question, and several of the players could still become studs, but for every Olajuwon and Jordan there is a Bowie.
