Danny Manning, Michael Olowokandi ... and now Blake Griffin.

The Los Angeles Clippers have twice had the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft, and will get it again for a third time, having won the league’s draft lottery on Tuesday night in Secaucus, N.J.
“Clearly, we’re taking Blake Griffin,” Clippers General Manager and Coach Mike Dunleavy said in a telephone interview from Barcelona, Spain.
“This guy is the No. 1 pick. We’re extremely excited. He’s the guy.”
There wasn’t much of question the Clippers would do anything other than take the dynamic, explosive forward from Oklahoma. Dunleavy, though, wasn’t about to be coy in the wee morning hours in Spain and erased any shred of doubt about the team’s intention on the draft June 25 in New York.
They moved up from third to first — armed with a 17.7 percent chance of winning — and their upward progression had international reverberations for a beleaguered, hard-luck franchise.
Memphis will pick second, moving up from sixth, followed by Oklahoma City and Sacramento, which had the league’s worst record. The Kings, represented by Chris Webber, had a 25 percent chance of winning. Washington dropped from second to fifth, and Minnesota and Golden State will pick sixth and seventh, respectively.
The NBA and ESPN put on quite an event at the NBA Entertainment Studio, looking like a sports event morphed with a quiz show.
Webber joked that the Kings’ owners, the Maloofs, wouldn’t let him come back to Sacramento if he didn’t get the top pick. And Mr. October, baseball legend Reggie Jackson, tried to become Mr. May, joining the Knicks’ effort as a guest on a late whim, more or less.
The Clippers’ team representative, President Andy Roeser, looked jubilant on the ESPN broadcast, having gutted it out through a long commercial break before the drama of the final three. He doesn’t consider himself to be superstitious, but his wife had a Clippers No. 1 sewn into his jacket.
“We had a tough season. There’s no hiding from it. Not only did we have a tough season, we didn’t perform well on top of it. We needed some good news, and this is a great day for us,” Roeser said later on a conference call.
Said Griffin, in an ESPN interview: “I was obviously excited ... . Just to play in the NBA has been a dream for so long. It’s a great feeling. I’m going to try to make the best out of whatever situation I’m put in. Hopefully I can make a big impact. I’m going to try to come in and learn as much as I can on the fly, and hopefully help the team out in any way I can.”
Dunleavy, who was in Spain to scout guard Ricky Rubio, got a flood of e-mails and congratulatory text messages, starting with his sons. Rubio, in fact, was injured 12 minutes into the first game Dunleavy watched. He did come back with a strong performance in Game 2 of the Spanish playoffs, scoring 16 points.
Now it appears Rubio will land in Memphis. Griffin, who led the nation in double-doubles last season, could have had an up-close-and-personal look at the Clippers in April. On the same night he received the Wooden Award in Los Angeles as the college basketball player of the year, the Clippers were playing Sacramento a few miles away, fighting for better lottery odds.
The Kings lost that night. But it hardly mattered, as it turned out.
“It’s very positive for us because most people feel the draft is not a good draft,” Dunleavy said. “There’s a big difference between us going No. 1 and being No. 6. That’s clearly a big positive. Last year, we knew we’d get a good player at 6 or 7.”
Still the Clippers are not through with decisions even though they are taking Griffin. His addition raises questions about what to do with the existing big men on the roster: Zach Randolph, Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman.
Dunleavy spoke about the addition of Griffin as a major asset at the table.
Said Roeser: “It’s not a good problem. It’s a great problem.”
Words not often heard by Clipper fans before Tuesday night.