SECAUCUS, New Jersey, 28 May 2004 — The Orlando Magic have had more lottery luck than any other National Basketball Association team.

The Magic won the NBA Draft lottery for the third time Wednesday night and will have the first pick in the June 24 draft.

Since entering the NBA as an expansion franchise in 1989, the Magic have won the drawing for the top pick in 1992, when they selected Shaquille O’Neal, and again the following year, when they defied odds and ended up with Penny Hardaway.

The odds were not as long this time around. The Magic were a league-worst 21-61 this season and had the best chance of winning at 25 percent.

When NBA Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik revealed the second pick belonged to the Los Angeles Clippers, Magic senior vice president Pat Williams stood and pumped his fists in celebration.

“You control the draft, and that’s a good position to be in,” he said.

In their 15-year history, the Magic have been in the lottery seven times. They picked fourth in 1990, 10th in 1991 and had two picks in both 1998 and 2000.

“In ‘92, we had 10 of the 66 balls in the Shaq year,” Williams said. “The next year we missed the playoffs with a fifth tiebreaker. We limped into that lottery with one ball out of the 66 and won.”

However, there is no clear-cut top draft choice this year. Most draft experts consider Connecticut forward Emeka Okafor and Atlanta high school forward Dwight Howard to be the top two players, although Ekafor would offer immediate help for Orlando’s porous interior defense.

The Clippers, slotted fifth based on their 28-54 record, they had an 11.31 percent chance of getting the second pick.

“We’ll explore them all and work out every player,” Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. “At (No.) 5, there probably were some players who probably didn’t want to work out for us.”

The Bulls (23-59) were bumped to third, followed by the Charlotte Bobcats, who were slotted fourth as part of their expansion agreement.

Lab Results Counter Bryant Accuser’s Story

In Denver, crime laboratory evidence shows the 19-year-old woman who has accused Kobe Bryant of rape had consensual sex with another man hours after she said the basketball star raped her, MSNBC reported on Wednesday. The DNA evidence from the prosecution’s own laboratory could be introduced in court when the Los Angeles Laker will be back in an Eagle, Colorado, courtroom for a pre-trial hearing, the cable TV report said.

Bryant’s lawyer, Pamela Mackey, laid a bombshell in a prior pre-trial hearing when she suggested the woman had sex within 15 hours after she said she was raped.

Through her attorney, the young woman denied having sex so soon after she said she was raped on June 30 at a Colorado resort where she worked and Bryant was staying for outpatient surgery on his knee.

According to the MSNBC report, fresh samples were found the woman’s body from samples given during a rape examination and that such evidence would prove she had sex within hours after the incident with Bryant.

Krista Flannigan, a spokeswoman for Eagle County prosecutor Mark Hurlbert, said the office could not comment on the report.

The 25-year-old Bryant has pleaded not guilty to raping the woman.