Utah Jazz Roll The Dice With Keyonte George At The Nba Draft Lottery

As hilarious as it would have been to send one final middle finger in the direction of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Derrick Favors will not be the Utah Jazz’s representative for the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery. I know, I know. How poetic would it have been to display the long-tenured Jazzman on the podium as a physical reminder that OKC will not be getting Utah’s lottery pick this year, nor any year for the forseeable ever.

Face!

In Favors’ place, the Jazz have elected to send the smiling face of breakout point guard Keyonte George (along with the rest of his body). George was selected 16th overall in the 2023 draft — the year that Utah officially began to reconstruct from the ruins of the Gobert-Mitchell explosion. He has developed into a borderline All-Star in just three years with the Jazz, and he orchestrates Will Hardy’s offense better than any of Utah’s many, many selections since ‘23 — with the tantalizing talent of Ace Bailey still pending.

Keyonte is living proof that the rebuild was a success. Breathing evidence that a team can build through the draft, and that these SLC Punks (hey, kinda like the name of the site!), will not conform to Adam Silver’s backwards regime, nor will they relent when the losses flip to wins in under a year’s time. A beautiful decision, and one deserving of my applause.

Utah currently holds the fourth-best odds thanks to boasting the fourth-worst record league-wide, plus a coin flip to nudge ahead of Sacramento. With just an 11.5% chance of claiming the number-one overall pick, the basketball world will watch with bated breath as we send a solemn prayer to the hooping heavens:

“Please, please, please
I have never asked for much
Except for last year. And the year before that
But I pray not for the number-one pick.
I ask for only this:
Don’t give it to Golden State
And especially don’t give it to Dallas
Amen.“

Cancel your Mother’s Day plans. The NBA Draft Lottery will air on Sunday, May 10, at 1:00 PM MT.

Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the NBA and College Sports since 2024.