The NBA Draft Lottery is just a week away. With it the future of the New Orleans Pelicans could be decided thanks to the lucky bounce of a ping pong ball. SB Nation has already explained the lottery drawing in depth here, but here is a quick version for the TL:DR crowd.
14 numbered ping pong balls are put into a hopper. Teams are assigned a number of potential combinations (1,000 of the 1,001 combinations are assigned) based on their record. Four balls are drawn for the first pick. Then the process is repeated for the second and third pick.