Brandon Roy to represent Portland Trail Blazers at NBA Draft Lottery
The Portland Trail Blazers are turning to a former franchise cornerstone and one of the region's most accomplished high school basketball coaches for a hopeful stroke of luck.
Brandon Roy, now a three-time state champion high school coach at Garfield High School in Seattle, will represent his former franchise at the NBA Draft Lottery in Chicago on Tuesday, May 16, just as he did in 2007 coming off of his Rookie of the Year season when the team landed the No. 1 overall pick that turned into Greg Oden.
The Blazers carry a 10.5 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick, which is widely expected to turn into 7-foot-4 French phenom Victor Wembanyama. Portland had 5.3 percent odds in 2007.
A degenerative knee condition forced Roy to retire from the NBA in 2011 after just six seasons. But the Seattle native made a memorable impact in those years, earning three all-star selections and two All-NBA selections (2009 and 2010).
Since then, he's won three Washington high school state championships as a head coach in his native Seattle, first at Nathan Hale (2017) and then at his alma mater Garfield in 2018 and 2023. The Bulldogs knocked off O'Dea 69-50 to reclaim the Class 3A state crown in March.
Roy joined the high school coaching ranks in 2016, taking over for a talent-laden Nathan Hale team that ended up being one of the nation's best in 2017. He's coached two NBA lottery picks in Michael Porter Jr. (Denver Nuggets) and Tari Eason (Houston Rockets), as well as Jontay Porter (Memphis Grizzlies) and Marjon Beauchamp (Milwaukee Bucks).
The NBA Draft lottery begins at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 16 and will be televised on ESPN.
The news is especially noteworthy as it's the first time he's done anything formally with the franchise he was once the cornerstone of since he retired.
Roy told Jason Quick of The Athletic:
“Some of it for me is I’m getting older. I feel like being away was good for me, and it gave me time to refocus and reset my life. So, this is me just trying to keep up the relationship — I think not only with Joe, but the entire Blazers organization. This is kind of the first step at it. We’ve talked about me coming back down to some games next year, and I just kind of want to normalize it a little more with me being back around the NBA. I’ve even talked with UW (University of Washington, his alma mater) and the coaches there to just try to normalize being back around it again. I’m not saying the NBA or college even is anything I want to be a part of — right now — but it’s something I’m starting to think about more seriously.’’
He stood on the draft lottery stage in 2007 when now-NBA commissioner Adam Silver unveiled Portland as the winner of the top overall pick. Watch the video of the broadcast below:
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Lead photo by Vince Miller
