Lucky lotto numbers
05/15/2003
Codding Home / Sports Channel / Bullz-Eye Home
If you're looking for "Must See TV" on Thursday, May 22, forget about "Friends" and "Will & Grace." In fact, once 8:00 rolls around you'll want to avoid NBC entirely, because on May 22, "Must See TV" will be airing on a rival network.
No, the "ER" cast didn't bail on the Peacock. But next Thursday, all the drama and excitement will be featured on ABC during the telecast of the NBA Draft Lottery.
Okay, so maybe there won't be quite so much drama and excitement. I remember vividly the first time I tuned in to watch the Lottery. Being younger and much more uninformed then, I assumed there would actually be some form of player selection occurring that evening. I mean, why else would the process be televised, right?
Silly me.
Seems the only action that the NBA Lottery offers is the opening of oversized envelopes and the ensuing celebration by the team rep who discovers that he's won the ultimate prize: pick #1.
Oh Jerry Krause, for those moments you surely will be missed.
But that's it. There's no actual drafting of players, no war room crises, no trade announcements at the podium, no Mel Kiper hairdos, no Mike Tice blunders. Hell, we don't even get to see the ping-pong balls.
What a rip off.
Even worse, after the fate of the draft's top three teams has been decided by the way those ping-pong balls bounce, the remaining 10 teams are simply assigned a draft position, determined by inverse order of their regular season records.
Talk about your anticlimactic moments. Not to mention a wasted trip for those 10 representatives.
And yet, I'm quite certain I'll be watching the Lottery next Thursday, and if you're reading this column I'm willing to bet you will be too. But not just because I live in Cleveland and my hometown team has a 22.5% chance of landing the top spot, and certainly not because "Friends" will be a repeat.
So then, for a National Basketball Association draft event that features no basketball, no drafting and very little event, why all the fuss? I hear it has something to do with some high school kid from Akron.
LeBron James will be chosen with the first overall pick when teams actually get to select players more than a month later in the June 26th draft. Keep it hush-hush, though, because that's top-secret intelligence that I got from an inside source. I've also been told that Syracuse forward Carmelo Anthony, fresh off his NCAA title run, and Yugoslavian star Darko Milicic will go second and third, though not necessarily in that order.
Again, mum's the word, go it? I had to take an oath of silence after learning this information. Fortunately, I'm typing right now and not talking, so I've upheld my end of the bargain.
LeBron, Carmelo and Milicic, the three jewels of the 2003 draft, but James is without question the most coveted of the trio and perhaps the hottest amateur in the history of organized sports. Rumor has it the Raptors would deal their lottery pick along with Vince Carter and his personal team of orthopedic specialists for the rights to King James should they fail to land the first selection. And don't be surprised to see Cleveland's team rep openly weeping on national television when the Cavs inevitably miss out on the top spot.
It's safe to say that I'm not exactly optimistic about their chances Thursday night.
That's how much this kid means to these 13 lucky teams. Sure, Anthony and Milicic are intriguing blue-chippers with seemingly impressive NBA careers ahead of them, but neither one of those guys ever got hooked up with a closet full of retro jerseys and a pimped-out Hummer at the age of 18.
Now that's talent.
And neither one of those guys will sell tickets like LeBron will, lure the national TV audience like LeBron will, bring in a mountain of cash in merchandise sales alone like LeBron will. Because let's face it, his athletic ability is certainly something to drool over, especially for a 6-8, 240-pound teenager, but the instantaneous jolt in revenue and general team interest is just as valuable to teams like the Nuggets, Raptors, Heat and especially the hometown Cavs, the four franchises with the best chances of coming home with the winning lotto number. Combined, this foursome went 83-245 this season, and only Toronto managed to rank in the top half of the league in average home attendance; Miami (22nd at 15,323 per game), Denver (25th at 14,826) and Cleveland (last at 11,497) are virtually as desperate for a bump in ticket sales as they are a bump in the standings.
Still, Anthony and Milicic both project as future superstars, so a draft assignment anywhere in the top three is what next week's participants are aching for. But what happens to those unlucky franchises that not only miss out on the Second Coming, but also fail to land one of the two consolation prospects? They'll get to choose between guys like Chris Bosh, T.J. Ford, Kirk Hinrich and Mickael Pietrus, among others.
In other words, they'll likely try to trade down.
But let's see what happens next Thursday before we start sifting through those messy details. The only things we know for certain right now are, first, that some fortunate team is going to win the lottery of all lotteries next week, and two, it won't be the Cavs. Still, I'll be watching as those huge envelopes are opened Thursday night, just like you. And if the Cavs somehow defy fate and emerge as the evening's grand-prize winner, I'm sure they'll figure out a way to screw it up. Much like they did on the final night of the regular season.
Standing one game ahead of Denver in the LeBron sweepstakes, Cleveland rolled to a 10-point win over Toronto in their last game of the year while the Nuggets dropped a heartbreaker to the Rockets, 89-84. But it's not like the Cavs didn't try -- Ricky Davis, the team's leading scorer and assist man, sat out with a sprained ankle despite playing 46 minutes two nights earlier, while Milt Palacio, Smush Parker, DeSagana Diop, Tierre Brown and Michael Stewart all surpassed their season averages in minutes played.
And they still blew it.
Regardless, I'll be tuned in to ABC on Thursday, May 22 for what should be the biggest uneventful NBA event ever. That certainly sounds like "Must See TV" to me.
Questions/comments? Send all e-mails to jcodding@bullz-eye.com.