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A game can turn on one whacky bounce of the ball. A draft can turn, well, on the flip of a coin.

Ask Allan Bristow.

By now you know that the New Orleans Hornets, the franchise with which Bristow — a Marco Island resident — spent the majority of his post-playing career, made out quite well when they nabbed Chris Paul with the 2005 NBA Draft’s fourth pick.

The story of how New Orleans got to that selection, however, is one you may not have heard. And Bristow, the general manager of the Hornets during that fateful draft process three years ago, can tell it better than anyone.

“A flip of the coin,” Bristow said recently, “is why we got Chris Paul.”

It’s all forgotten now. A lot of what ifs.

Paul has become the face of the Hornets, a rising star who this past season led New Orleans within a game of the Western Conference finals. He finished second in the MVP voting behind Kobe Bryant after averaging 21.1 points, 11.6 assists and 2.7 steals.

But imagine if New Orleans never had a shot at Paul. Imagine if the fourth pick in ‘05 belonged, instead, to the team in the city where the Hornets used to play.

It almost happened.

If you look back at the NBA standings from the 2004-05 season, you’ll see that the Hornets were tied with Charlotte for the second-worst record in the league. By winning the coin flip — at the owners meeting in April, the best Bristow can recall — New Orleans was awarded the higher draft slot in the event neither team picked in the top three.

And the way things shook out, it mattered. The Milwaukee Bucks won the NBA Draft Lottery that spring, followed by the Atlanta Hawks and the Portland Trail Blazers (who’d later trade their pick). The remainder of the draft slots, for the non-playoff teams, were determined by records, and with the Hawks (who owned the league’s worst record) in the top three, that left the Hornets and Bobcats to fill the next two positions. New Orleans picked fourth and Charlotte fifth.

“Until recently,” Bristow said, “it’s something that had really been out of my mind. You just didn’t realize how big it would turn out to be.”

The impact of that pick, however, is becoming more obvious by the year. And the way Bristow sees it, whoever picked fourth was going to pick Paul.

“To me,” Bristow said, “it was a four-player draft.”

The other three: Utah center Andrew Bogut, who went first to the Bucks; North Carolina forward Marvin Williams, who went second to the Hawks; and Illinois point guard Deron Williams, who went third to the Utah Jazz via their trade with Portland. The fifth pick, by Charlotte, was North Carolina point guard Raymond Felton.

While the first two picks have been relative disappointments, Paul — who earned Rookie of the Year honors — and Deron Williams have emerged, with Paul the only player from the ‘05 draft to have made an All-Star roster.

But who’s to say that the Hornets, had they been in a better position, wouldn’t have themselves made a mistake.

At the Draft Lottery in May ‘05, Bristow sat among representatives from every non-playoff team. Every one of them had a chance to win the first overall pick, but the Hornets, with their 18-64 record, seemed a shoe-in to at least crack the top three.

That’s what Bristow thought.

“You’d have thought that somebody hit me with a sledgehammer,” Bristow said, recalling his reaction to the news New Orleans would pick fourth.

Bristow can laugh about it now. He knows the ‘05 draft shined on New Orleans, delivering likely its best player to the soon-to-be hurricane-ravaged city.

“A general manager asked me if I had the first pick back then if I’d have picked Chris Paul,” Bristow said. “I’m not going to tell you what I told him.”

And he doesn’t have to.

But this much Bristow, 56, isn’t ashamed to admit: He never envisioned himself comparing Paul to the likes of Magic Johnson or Isiah Thomas.

“You expect to get good players in the lottery,” he said, “and hopefully you get an All-Star. But then there’s another level -- then there’s a superstar level. And he’s in that category. He’s got the potential to be one of the all-time great point guards in the league.”

Bristow, of course, has seen his share — and in virtually every capacity.

He played 10 seasons for the 76ers, Spurs, Jazz and Mavericks. Later, he coached the Larry Johnson-led Hornets to a pair of playoff appearances.

His tour in the Hornets front office, however, lasted only two years. He retired in October 2005, entering his second season as GM.

But he remains a fan.

And he is partial, naturally, to the Hornets.

As he watched the NBA playoffs unfold this past season, he marveled at the manner in which Paul rallied the franchise and the city.

“He’s turned that franchise around.” Bristow said. “I know they were really concerned about the number of season tickets being sold the first couple of years they were there, but he has spearheaded this huge wave of enthusiasm.”

Thanks, in part, to a coin flip.