30 luckiest sports franchises

19. New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets

The New Jersey Nets have fallen off of the map since they moved and became the Brooklyn Nets, but they did have a pretty lucky stretch to start the new millennium back around the time of the 2000 NBA Draft.

The Nets weren’t great in the 1999 season, but they definitely weren’t the worst team in the league by any stretch. In fact, there were six other teams in the NBA during that season that finished the year with a worse record than the Nets, so it looked like the Nets wouldn’t get a high draft pick that year.

However, the luck of the draw is real, and they hit the jackpot for the 2000 NBA Draft. With a 4.4 percent chance at getting the top pick that year, the Nets somehow pulled it out, and drafted Kenyon Martin as the first overall pick.

The team quickly turned things around, and, after one year of some more struggling and trying to get things straight in New Jersey, earned their way to an NBA Finals appearance against the Los Angeles Lakers in 2002, and another in 2003.

Although they didn’t win either of those title shots, it goes to show just how important adding Martin to play alongside Jason Kidd was, and adding Richard Jefferson was another key moment for the team’s success. All it took was a quick stroke of luck with a 4.4 percent chance of actually happening, and it got the Nets two straight NBA Finals appearances.