The Wizards usually don’t get the better end of the deal, and Tuesday night was no different.

The Wizards had something like a 17.8% chance of earning the #1 overall pick in the draft lottery selection process. So do the Wizards get lucky and receive that #1 pick? Of course not. They fall all the way to fifth. And I say “all the way” because the law of probability says that the Wiz should have received the #2 pick, at least. But instead, the Wizards miss out on the Blake Griffin sweepstakes and the 2009 Draft for Washington Wizards fans just got that much worse.

Most Mock Drafts have the Wizards selecting James Harden from Arizona State. That’s all fine and well, but as a fan myself, I need some time to sleep off the horrendous pick we just received before I start thinking about what to do with it.

Perhaps this is a curse that will haunt the Washington franchise for the rest of its existence? Does anyone remember the last time the Washington Wizards had the #1 overall pick?

That’s right, it was 2001. Probably not one of the greatest drafts to ever come across the table, but the Wiz had the top pick nonetheless. It was the first #1 selection the franchise had ever had. Michael Jordan was in the front office at that time and he had some decision making to do. The first-round was rich with talent, but not necessarily security. Names like Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol, Jason Richardson, Shane Battier, Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Gerald Wallace, and Tony Parker floated around. Who would Jordan select? After (what I assume) about 10 minutes of solid thinking and looking at draftees vitals, Michael Jordan decided to make a young man named Kwame Brown the first-ever #1 pick to be drafted out of high school. And if you know anything about basketball or you watched a single Wizards game in ‘01, you know what kind of player Kwame turned out to be. You would also know what kind of players the other mentioned draftees are.

I am convinced that that one June evening in the summer of 2001 has permanently crippled the Washington Wizards franchise for years and years to come. Tough luck I suppose. That’s just the way the balls fall…