Tonight, at Disney/ABC’s Times Square Studios in New York City, the 76ers will discover their draft-night fate. They'll know the draft slot for their pick and New Orleans', and whether the Pelicans retain their selection or owe it to the Sixers as compensation for a trade last summer.

The Sixers find themselves pinning their hopes on the ping-pong balls of the NBA’s Draft lottery for the 13^th time in its 30 years of existence. Here’s a look at the mathematical odds for the Sixers’ pick in relation to particular slots in the draft:

(AP)

No. 1 … 19.9 percent

No. 2 … 18.8

No. 3 … 17.1

No. 4 … 31.9

No. 5 … 12.3

In addition to their lottery selection, the Sixers hold the rights to New Orleans’ first-round pick – assuming the Pelicans don’t win the lottery and land anywhere in the top 3. Here’s a breakdown of the Pelicans’ statistical odds in the lottery:

No. 1 … 1.1 percent

No. 2 … 1.3

No. 3 … 1.6

No. 10 … 87.0

No. 11 … 8.9

No. 12 … 0.2

No. 13 … 0.1

Other notes on the NBA Draft lottery:

• The Sixers hold potentially two lottery selections: theirs and New Orleans’. The Pelicans’ pick is top-five protected, so if they “win the lottery” and land in one of the top-three picks, they would retain it. The Sixers would be owed a top-five protected, first-round selection for the 2015 draft as future compensation.
• The Sixers’ draft-lottery representative will be Julius Erving. Last year, it was majority owner Joshua Harris.
• As the Sixers’ good luck charm, Dr. J will bring with him shards of glass from a backboard broken by Darryl Dawkins during a Dec. 5, 1979 game against San Antonio. Cherry Hill native Jake Spencer, the holder of the glass bits, had his entry selected during a team contest in conjunction with 97.5 FM The Fanatic.
• Only four times has the team with the league’s second-worst record won the lottery. The last occurrence was in 2009, with the Los Angeles Clippers. The Sixers finished with the league’s next-to-last mark, at 19-63.
• Only once have the Sixers won the lottery. That was in 1996, when they moved from No. 2 to No. 1 and selected Allen Iverson.

(Boston University)

While the 76ers’ game Wednesday night against the host Boston Celtics is sure to be a treat for Sixers rookie and Hamilton, Mass., native Michael Carter-Williams, as well as for injured rookie Nerlens Noel, of Malden, Mass., it’s fair to assume the Sixers’ first-year coach will have a few familiar faces in the arena, too.

The native of South Portland, Maine, who routinely took trips with his parents into Boston as a youth to watch the Celtics, Brett Brown spoke glowingly Tuesday after the Sixers’ practice about his links to Boston: the games he’d seen there and the games he’d played there, as an undergrad at Boston University.

Here’s what Brown had to say:

On Boston Garden’s charm:

“In the seats I had, you’d look up five feet to the roof and see the moss and the stalagmites or stalactites. I don’t remember which one goes up or down. You’re in an old, dingy building that had so much character.”

On the parquet floor’s unforgiving squares:

“I played there a few times during my Boston University days,” he said. “You’d play in Christmas tournaments – BC, Northeastern, UMass. You’d be flying up the court, dribbling and you’d hit one of the dead squares and you’re upset because it’s a turnover with nobody around and (the ball) just wouldn’t come up. It’s funny. You started learning, as a point guard, where you could go for steals. Sometimes, with other point guards you were guarding were going to have trouble with the floor. You’d try to manipulate it and try to take it as an advantage.”

On the Sixers/Celtics games from back in the day:

“I can still hear the music, the introduction, to the NBA Game of the Week. You hear it and you think immediately, ‘NBA.’ To travel down to the Garden, and to see back in my day it was (George) McGinnis and Julius Erving and Bobby Jones and Andrew Toney and Mo Cheeks and Doug (Collins) and so on. I couldn’t believe how Toney would kick the Celtics’ tail. He was so unguardable. … It was such a big part of my upbringing.”