Duke Basketball Alum Looks to Win Victor Wembanyama Sweepstakes

Duke basketball's Mark Williams will represent Charlotte at next week's NBA Draft Lottery.

When the NBA Draft Lottery occurs at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, former two-year Duke basketball treasure Mark Williams will serve as a rabbit's foot for the Charlotte Hornets, who have a realistic shot at snagging the No. 1 overall selection. The Hornets announced on Thursday that he is their team representative.

Since the Hornets finished with the league's fourth-worst record (27-55), they have the fourth-highest odds to land presumptive top-overall pick Victor Wembanyana, a 7-foot-2 unicorn out of France and potential generational talent. Their chance of doing so is 12.5 percent.

Jonathan DeLong of At the Hive summed up perfectly what it means to be a team's representative at the televised gathering (ESPN):

"Every team will send a representative to sit behind a podium while a bunch of ping pong balls are drawn in another room before the deputy commissioner pulls a bunch of team logos out of oversized envelopes. Their presence is just to add pomp and circumstance to the event. The reps will basically just talk about how cool it'd be to win the lottery and then sit and look pretty."

As one can see in the tweeted video below, Williams has no problem picking out sharp threads for draft-related events:

Your 2023 NBA Draft Lottery representative: @MarkWi1liams 😤#HornetsDraft pic.twitter.com/ZcA5YwC0El

— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) May 11, 2023

The fact that Charlotte will send Williams is a testament to the franchise's appreciation of the NBA Blue Devil following his promising rookie campaign. The 7-foot-1, 245-pound big man, the first pick outside the lottery last year at No. 15, emerged late in the season as a double-double machine and a full-time starter down the stretch.

Although Williams spent the early portion of the Hornets' schedule building his confidence in G League action, the 21-year-old became Charlotte's primary presence down low after a trade in February sent fellow Duke basketball product Mason Plumlee to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Mark Williams, a former McDonald's All-American and the 2022 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, ended up playing 43 games for the Hornets, averaging 9.0 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks per outing.

RELATED: List of Duke's All-Time McDonald's All-Americans

Wembanyama, who has suggested he would prefer playing power forward in the NBA, and Williams could make for a dynamite 7-foot tandem for years to come.

First, though, Williams must deliver good luck.

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