BRISTOL, Conn. – The Seattle Storm won the 15th annual WNBA Draft Lottery presented by State Farm® and earned the top pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft presented by State Farm, the WNBA announced today.  The Lottery was conducted in a televised event at ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol during halftime of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals between the Phoenix Mercury and the Minnesota Lynx on ESPN2.

For Seattle, which had entered the WNBA Draft Lottery presented by State Farm with the most chances to land the top pick (442 out of 1,000), this marks the second consecutive year the Storm has emerged as the winner.  Last year, Seattle won the top pick and used it to select Notre Dame guard Jewell Loyd, who earlier today was named the 2015 WNBA Rookie of the Year presented by Samsung.  Seattle also won the inaugural Lottery, in advance of the 2002 Draft, and with that pick selected University of Connecticut guard Sue Bird, whose WNBA career includes nine All-Star selections and two WNBA Championships.

San Antonio, which had the next most chances (276), will have the second selection and will be followed by Connecticut, which had the third most opportunities (178).  Atlanta, which had the fewest chances (104), will select fourth.

This marks just the third time that the Lottery, instituted prior to the 2002 Draft, has gone according to the odds.  It also happened in advance of the 2009 Draft, with Atlanta landing the top spot, and last year when Seattle acquired the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 Draft.

Under the new format announced on Aug. 5, the drawing was held among the four teams that did not make the playoffs (the “Lottery teams”) during the current season.  However, instead of assigning each Lottery team odds based solely on its record this season, the odds were based on the cumulative records of the Lottery teams over the two most recent regular seasons (2014 and 2015).

The new format also guaranteed that the Lottery team with the worst two-year cumulative record would end up with at least the third pick, and the two Lottery teams whose numbers did not come up in the lottery would then select in the inverse order of their two-year cumulative record.  Under the previous format, the Lottery team with the worst single-season record was guaranteed to pick no worse than fourth.

A representative from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young was in attendance to oversee the lottery process.

The following are results of the 2016 WNBA Draft Lottery presented by State Farm:

2016 WNBA DRAFT LOTTERY ORDER

Order        Team                             Combined                        Chances

                                                2014-2015 Record                 (out of 1,000)

1.          Seattle                               22-46                                 442
2.          San Antonio                      24-44                                 276
3.          Connecticut                       28-40                                 178
4.          Atlanta                               34-34                                 104

The order of selection for the remainder of the first round as well as the second and third round is in inverse order of the teams’ respective regular-season records solely from 2015.

Following is the remaining order of the first round, as determined by 2015 regular-season records:

REMAINING ORDER FOR FIRST ROUND

Team                                                 Record    

5. Los Angeles                               14-20
6. Tulsa                                          18-16
7. Washington                                18-16
8. Phoenix                                      20-14
9. Indiana                                       20-14
10. Chicago                                      21-13
11. Atlanta from Minnesota             22-12 (Trade of Fowles, DeSouza, Dantas, Gray, 7/26/15)
12. New York                                   23-11

About State Farm®
The mission of State Farm is to help people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected, and realize their dreams. State Farm and its affiliates are the largest providers of auto, home and individual life insurance in the United States. Its 18,000 agents and more than 65,000 employees serve more than 82 million policies and accounts – nearly 80 million auto, home, life, health and commercial policies, and nearly 2 million bank accounts. Commercial auto insurance, along with coverage for renters, business owners, boats and motorcycles, is available. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 41 on the 2015 Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit http://www.statefarm.com.

About the WNBA
The WNBA – which features 12 teams and is the most successful women’s professional team sports league in the world – is a unique global sports property combining competition, sportsmanship, and entertainment value with its status as an icon for social change, achievement, and diversity.  The league, which counts Boost Mobile as its leaguewide marquee partner, concludes its 19^th regular season on Sept. 13, 2015.

Through WNBA Cares, the WNBA is deeply committed to creating programs that improve the quality of life for all people, with a special emphasis on programs that promote a healthy lifestyle and positive body image, increase breast and women’s health awareness, support youth and family development, and focus on education.  For more information on the WNBA, log on to www.wnba.com.