Picture this: On the 22nd of May 2003, the NBA lottery went down to two teams—the Cleveland Cavaliers, being represented by Gordon Gund, and the Memphis Grizzlies, represented by the logo himself, Jerry West. This was a defining moment for two franchises. Cleveland with the chance to take the hometown icon, or another achievement in West’s career as a general manager by making the Grizzlies contenders for years to come by bringing in LeBron James.
In reality, the No. 1 pick went to Cleveland, and Memphis lost out on the second pick due to a pre-existing trade from 1997 (for some reason, the Grizzlies traded away a top-1 protected pick for Otis Thorpe.