Congratulations to Kevin Love, who helped the Timberwolves hold onto their No. 9 position AND didn’t get hurt at the NBA lottery.

The Wolves now sport a lottery record of 0-7-8. They’ve never moved up, have drafted right where they should based on their record seven times and have tumbled backward eight times. Love, who on Tuesday represented the franchise at the event, brought enough good karma to allow the Wolves to hold serve at No. 9, which is just where they should be. Yippee.

The lottery was created to prevent teams from tanking in order to improve their position in the draft, but it’s a flawed system because it penalizes teams that consistently lose without subterfuge. For example, the Timberwolves always have been naturally good at losing basketball games.

And for years, we all knew what to expect at the lottery: If there were, say, two impact players coming out of college, the Wolves would end up with the third pick. If there were four impact players, they’d draft fifth. It got to the point where the goal was just to survive the lottery.

“Things are going well,” former team president Bob Stein reported from New York one Lottery Night. “Nobody has gotten hurt, and there haven’t been any accidents. But I do keep a fire extinguisher in my pocket.”

It took David Kahn awhile to understand the local negativity associated with the lottery. In 2009, the Wolves should have drafted No. 2 based on their record. But they fell to No. 4 on Lottery Night.

“I’m sorry if I’m not appropriately sad,” a defiant Kahn said via conference call. “This is not a night to feel limited.”

He ended up drafting Wesley Johnson at No. 4 and, after a while, everyone was appropriately sad.

Former Timberwolves owners Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner used to hold lottery practices in their offices. They would fill a hopper with pingpong balls and then sit around taking turns trying to draw one with the Wolves logo. It all worked swell, until they got to New York for the real thing.

In 2007, the Wolves sent player Randy Foye to represent the franchise. They armed him with holy water from the shrine at Lourdes in France. The water is said to possess great powers. For centuries, pilgrims have traveled to Lourdes to bathe in the water and become cured of their afflictions.

But the Wolves again went backward in the lottery and ended up with Corey Brewer.

Flip Saunders, during his first go-round with the team, once represented the franchise on Lottery Night. Armed with good-luck charms from his young children and a photo of a lucky hockey net sent to him by a friend, Flip went “splat” just like everybody else. So this was one of his first big decisions upon returning to the Timberwolves: Which lucky individual would represent the team in 2013?

Considering what usually happens, Flip narrowed his choices to Love and the Angel of Death. In the end, he made the right call. Armed with a Ricky Rubio figurine for luck, Love at least was able to maintain the status quo.

The Wolves’ bad lotto luck has become a running joke. But there was a time when nobody was smiling, especially early in franchise history.

In 1992, Minnesota won a grand total of 15 games, fewest in the league. That was the year Shaquille O’Neal was coming out of college. But on lottery night, the Orlando Magic had the luckiest pingpong ball. Not only that, the Wolves fell to No. 3 and lost out on Alonzo Mourning, too. They ended up with Prince Christian Laettner.

The very next year, after the Wolves had won 19 games, second worst in the NBA, they fell to No. 5 in the lottery and drafted J.R. Rider. Worse, Orlando, which improved to an even 41-41 with Shaq, won the lottery again and selected Chris Webber. Then-Wolves boss Jack McCloskey was livid.

“If the commissioner doesn’t see the error in his ways with a lottery like that, then it’s about time something was changed!” McCloskey demanded.

Something did change. McCloskey soon retired.

At least the Wild held their position this season, even though this is going to be a pretty non-descript draft. Who would have thought Love would be the one to stand up to the basketball gods? Kevin has had so much bad luck he is virtually unrecognizable when not sporting a cast or hand brace.

But he came through. I just hope nothing bad happens to him at the airport today.

Tom Powers can be reached at tpowers@pioneerpress.com.