For Jim Pitman, the waiting was both the hardest and easiest part.
The Suns’ longtime executive was one of the first people in the world to know Phoenix had won the No. 1 overall pick at last year’s draft lottery. But Pitman, like everybody inside that sixth-floor room at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, had all communication devices confiscated. So, he could not act on his first instinct to call everybody he knew but also felt no suspense as the results dragged out over a television broadcast 90 minutes later.
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“I enjoyed that more than anything,” Pitman recently recalled to The Athletic. “I could watch and just enjoy. I wasn’t nervous. I know Josh Jackson was really nervous up on stage. (Former Suns general manager Ryan McDonough), in the room, was really nervous. I had no nerves.”
Pitman will again post up inside a secluded hotel meeting room Tuesday in Chicago, representing a Suns franchise vying for the first pick for the second year in a row. Call it superstition or strategy. The vice president and chief financial officer has a growing reputation as Phoenix’s unofficial good-luck charm — and it goes beyond simply being present last year when the pingpong balls fell the Suns’ way for the first time ever.
“Robert Sarver and (wife) Penny Sarver were like, ‘You’re the luckiest guy we know in the organization. You need to go represent us,’” Pitman said of how he earned this distinction. “And it worked. I’d like to be able to duplicate that.”
Pitman does not consider himself an overly “lucky” person. He grew up about 190 miles southwest of Chicago in Rio, Illinois (population: 238), where kids swiftly transitioned from one sports season to the next throughout the year. So Pitman has a knack for things that require some skill or athleticism, and he does not crack in high-pressure moments.
“I take a lot of pride in that — being able to execute when necessary,” Pitman said.
His colleagues have known this for years. Pitman has been recruited more than once to shoot for others during employee 3-point competitions, in which the prize is an extra day off. He has earned $105,000 for Suns Charities at the Waste Management Phoenix Open’s “Shot at Glory” hole-in-one contest, including a 2014 victory in which his shot from the course’s iconic 16th hole landed about four feet from the pin.
Courtesy of the Phoenix Suns.“That’s the most nerve-wracking thing that I’ve ever done,” Pitman said.
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His day job, however, is wearing “two hats” for the Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury.
Since joining the organization in 1992, Pitman has risen from assistant arena controller to his current role. He oversees all financial and insurance aspects of both teams, along with Talking Stick Resort Arena, its adjacent parking garage, the Legends Entertainment District and the signage along Jefferson Street in downtown Phoenix. In 2013 he became the general manager of the Mercury, a three-time WNBA champion and consistently one of the league’s top teams.
Throughout his tenure, Pitman has experienced the heartbreak of John Paxson’s 1993 NBA Finals shot, the joy of the “Seven Seconds or Less” era and the awe of Devin Booker’s scoring barrages. He has spent time with Charles Barkley and Steve Nash, and he has watched Diana Taurasi morph into the best WNBA player of all time. He has endured the Suns’ lows of the past decade but hopes Tuesday’s lottery can be “the catalyst that propels us to that next special place.”
And now Pitman knows what to expect in Chicago.
Last year, he brought two literal lucky charms from the Mercury’s pair of No. 1 draft picks: a Russian championship medal from Brittney Griner and a photo from Taurasi of her and Griner. Perhaps this year Pitman will add something to the collection from Deandre Ayton, the record-breaking rookie the Suns chose first last June and who will be the organization’s onstage representative as this year’s results are unveiled on television.
Pitman, meanwhile, will settle into the isolated room with his fellow team officials, who all know the lottery is ultimately about chance and probability but still feel a twinge of competitiveness. The Suns, Knicks and Cavaliers — the NBA’s three worst teams during the 2018-19 season — have the best odds (14 percent) to land the No. 1 pick. A win this year would mean the opportunity to draft generational talent Zion Williamson, a massive on-court and marketing boon for any struggling franchise.
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Fourteen balls — which make 1,001 four-ball combinations that correspond to each lottery team — will be mixed in a mechanical drum for 20 seconds. Four balls will then shoot into a chamber, one at a time, with a 10-second break in between each whoosh that “feels like it takes forever,” Pitman says with a smile.
“And then it’s over,” Pitman said. “And then you’re either really happy or, if you’re not the winner, you’re not.”
Like last year, Pitman will know the Suns’ 2019 draft fate long before anybody not in the room where the real lottery happens.
And like last year, he hopes the waiting will be the hardest and easiest part of the night.
“It feels so good when you’ve done something that can help your organization,” Pitman said. “Not that I did anything. I just happened to be the one in the room. When you see the balls come up, you feel real good.
“It’s really luck of the draw, but you’re in there in the back room, and hopefully you can bring a little bit of luck to the process. We were lucky last year, and hopefully we can repeat that this year.”
(Top photo: Randy Belice/Getty Images)
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