December 1, 2020
2021 WNBA draft lottery to be held Friday, Dec. 4
Drawing will take place at halftime of ESPN's DePaul vs. Louisville game
You’re not going to want to miss what we have coming in 2021.
Continue reading with a subscription to The Next
Get unlimited access to women’s basketball coverage and help support our hardworking staff of writers, editors, and photographers by subscribing today.
Already a member?
Login
Subscriber-first benefits, subscriber-only events, a continued expansion of our unprecedented coverage, which includes every single WNBA team with its own beat reporter, every Division I women’s basketball conference covered in-depth, and a pipeline of young, diverse talent to create the present and future of 24/7 women’s basketball coverage.
Our suggestion? Take advantage of our incredible 50% off sale and make sure that money goes toward supporting the women’s sports media landscape you know we need.
100% of your money goes toward paying our writers, editors and photographers to do the work we all obsess about, night and day. Your support ensures the coverage of women’s basketball doesn’t ebb and flow with the caprices of one editor or another.
We’re here every day. Women’s basketball is what we live for. And because response has been so great, we’ve extended our best price of the year until December 6!
We can’t wait to see you on the other side of the paywall. And we know you’ll be as excited as we are about 2021 and beyond.
The WNBA has officially announced that the WNBA Draft Lottery 2021 will be conducted on Friday, Dec. 4. The lottery will take place at halftime of the DePaul vs. Louisville game on ESPN, which is scheduled to tip off at 6:30 p.m. ET.
ESPN’s LaChina Robinson will be hosting the lottery, and WNBA Head of League Operations, Bethany Donaphin, will announce the results.
The four teams to qualify for the lottery are the New York Liberty, Atlanta Dream, Dallas Wings and Indiana Fever. Whichever of these four teams wins will pick first overall in the 2021 WNBA Draft.
The lottery odds are based on cumulative records of the 2019 and 2020 seasons. With the worst record, at 12-44, the Liberty has the highest odds to win the number one pick (44.2%). With a record of 15-41, Atlanta has the second-highest odds of winning the top pick, slotting in with a 27.6% chance.
Dallas finished 18-38 over the last two years and will hold a 17.8% chance of winning the lottery. Rounding out the four lottery teams is Indiana, which holds a 19-37 record the last two years and carries a 10.4% chance of winning the top pick.
The lottery is conducted by placing 14 balls numbered 1-14 into the lottery machine. Four balls will be drawn at random to determine a four-digit combination. Whatever team is assigned that combination wins the No. 1 pick. The process will then be repeated to determine the second overall pick.
There are 1,000 possible combinations, and each team’s percentage correlates to their amount of combinations. New York has 442 combinations, Atlanta has 276, Dallas as 178 and Indiana holds 104.
After the second pick is awarded, the team left with the lowest cumulative two-year record will receive the third pick, and the remaining team will pick fourth.
