Ben Brimhall has been through this long enough to know his team needs a little extra help when those lottery balls start bouncing.
As a diehard Utah Jazz fan, faithfully peering out from the first row of the second deck every game for the last decade, Brimhall is all too familiar with the pain his franchise has put fans through recently: 65 losses this year; 51 the year before that.
All in the hope that the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft awaits.
But the Jazz never get lucky. Or at least they never have.
Utah’s one of only six NBA teams to never be awarded the top pick.
“Every time we don’t get it, it‘s a little closer to the time you do get it,” Brimhall said, starting optimistically before trailing off. “But, you know, I really don’t know.”
So before Monday’s NBA draft lottery, Brimhall called in a divine favor.
The Utah native went halfway around the world to Tokyo to buy an amulet from a Shinto shrine for good luck. Brimhall’s wife is Japanese and he’s bought amulets before. Some are for good health, fertility, and strong academic performance. But this time, he walked over to the temple worker with a special request.
“This,” he said, “is specifically for Cooper Flagg.”
For the last three years, since former stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were traded, Jazz fans have watched the losses pile up as the team tries to rebuild through the draft.
There have been bright spots, like the emergence of Lauri Markkanen, but there’s been too much losing to give fans much hope.
That could change Monday.
The Jazz have a 14% chance of winning the No. 1 overall pick in this week’s lottery, which would guarantee them the right to draft Flagg.
(Ben Brimhall) Brimhall is buying an amulet for good luck in the NBA Lottery.
Flagg is the best American-born prospect the NBA has seen in years. The 6-foot-9 forward suited up at Team USA’s camp before even playing a college game, scoring over LeBron James and Kevin Durant. Scouts thought he could potentially bring a championship to an NBA franchise one day.
When he took the Blue Devils to the Final Four this year, he surpassed even some of Duke’s most brilliant prospects. Zion Williamson, after all, never got the tournament‘s final weekend.
“Yeah, he’s definitely the truth,” Flagg’s teammate Darren Harris said, hinting at the championship window he could open up for any team lucky enough to get his services.
Utah fans know the losing would be worth it if Flagg lands in their lap. It‘s why they are praying, literally.
“Maybe we should have a state prayer day, or something like how [Utah Gov. Spencer] Cox had prayers for rain,” longtime Jazz fan Trevor Toolson said. “We should have a day of prayer for the Jazz.”
But even Toolson knows the odds are long. Having the worst record in the league only gets you so far in the NBA. The Jazz have the same odds as the Wizards and Hornets to get the first pick.
And if the Jazz don’t get the top spot, the rest of the draft doesn’t look nearly as enticing. Even if they end up at five, it could mean Utah gambles on another Baylor prospect like VJ Edgecomb. Or maybe they take Rutgers guard Ace Bailey. Both are fine players, but aren’t seen as franchise changers.
More losing would likely await.
“I hope that it‘s just not a commitment to tank again,” Toolson said. “But it feels like [it‘s] headed that way.”
Toolson put up a sign outside his North Salt Lake home with a prayer emoji and date that reads 5/12/25. Most of his neighbors have long given up hope, but he still suffers through every game.
He’s been going to Jazz games since 1979, flew from West Virginia to see John Stockton in the NBA Finals, and has always hoped to see a title before he dies. He even moved back to Salt Lake 10 years ago when he retired so he could watch more games in person.
He initially understood trading away Mitchell and Gobert, knowing the group probably reached its ceiling as the franchise searched for a pathway to the Larry O‘Brien trophy.
But recently, as he’s watched his team be non-competitive on purpose, he’s wondering if the tank is worth it. All of this for a 14% chance?
“Honestly, even with how much I would like to have a championship, I want a team that‘s going to go out and compete,” he said. “Even if you don’t purposely tank now, you’d still have a 6% chance at the top pick, OK? A team with a 5% chance at the top pick will probably win the lottery this year anyway. But we should try to develop and play hard, and let‘s see what we have. What do we have as a team? I have no idea. Yeah, we need a player. Well, no doubt. No s—.”
Toolson said he didn’t know if the Mitchell and Gobert duo could win a title, but at least they delivered the fan base meaningful moments. Meaning has been devoid from Jazz games these days. At this point, Toolson said he’d simply take the opportunity to see his team in the playoffs again.
“Some of my best memories are going to playoff games. I gave away my season tickets when they left. Maybe we pulled the plug too early,” he said. “Now we are just hoping the universe gives us Cooper Flagg.”
It is why, at 5 p.m. MT on Monday, Jazz fans will be watching and waiting on pins and needles. From Taylorsville to Tokyo.
(Ben Brimhall) Jazz fan Ben Brimhall travels to Tokyo, visiting the Basketball Bar, to help his team in the NBA Draft Lottery
At a watering hole in Japan appropriately called the Basketball Cafe, Brimhall will watch the lottery with a Jazz group called JazzNationJapan. There are about 20 fans, most of them in their 40s and 50s, who started following the team when Stockton and Karl Malone played a preseason game there in 1990.
The room is packed with NBA memorabilia and jerseys from around the association. A signed Michael Jordan poster is on the wall and Dirk Nowitzki Fathead hangs above the register. Under basketball royalty, the Jazz fans will await their fate.
Flagg’s jersey will likely hang from those bar walls one day.
Brimwall is hoping it will be Jazz purple.