ZION WILLIAMSON has never been to New Orleans.

That may be changing very soon.

The Pelicans bucked seriously long odds Tuesday night, winning the NBA draft lottery and the right to have the first chance at selecting the former Duke star next month — and potentially pairing him with Anthony Davis, in what would immediately become one of the league’s most intriguing frontcourt duos.

“I don’t believe the universe makes mistakes,” said David Griffin, who is barely a month into his tenure as New Orleans’ executive vice president of basketball operations. “I just think we have something special going on.”

Griffin doesn’t play the lottery, unless the jackpot is one of those billion-dollar-type enormous ones.

Maybe he should. The ping-pong balls seem to bounce his way a lot.

Griffin was with Cleveland when the Cavaliers won the lottery in 2011, 2013 and 2014. And now it’s the Pelicans, his new employer, which has struck lottery gold. They defied the odds to do it; the Pelicans entered the lottery with a 6 percent chance of winning the No. 1 pick for the June 20 draft.

So now, instead of going into a summer where they may have traded Davis — the player New Orleans got when it won the lottery in 2012, the player who was openly disgruntled this season — the Pelicans have a chance at becoming much better, and fast.

Memphis will choose second, New York third and the Los Angeles Lakers will pick fourth. The Pelicans, Grizzlies and Lakers all moved up to get a top-four spot; New York, Phoenix and Cleveland had the best odds of winning the lottery at 14 percent each, and none of those clubs even got a top-two pick.

(SD-Agencies)