(Editor’s Note: This should have been written on the eve of
the NBA Draft Lottery but I was running dumb errands.)
I could have posted a blog about why the New Orleans Hornets
were certainly going to win the NBA Lottery because it makes too much stinking
sense.
I usually hate sports conspiracy theories because they’re
often manufactured by fans. And fans can be astoundingly stupid. But this one
seemed to be a subtle certainty throughout the league and its fan base. It’s
almost too funny to believe:
David Stern kyboshes a trade that would have sent Chris Paul
to the LA Lakers. Knowing that he holds all the cards and the league has a
direct interest in the team, he breaks it up and swaps with the LA Clippers
instead and gets an even better deal.
The Hornets net Eric Gordon and rid of some awful contracts
with a few more coming off the books. Then the Hornets tank the season, hoping
to keep pace with the Bobcats who set a record for the worst win percentage in
league history and what-the-hell-is-Michael-Jordan-eating-these –day references.
Then the tournament spotlights a true franchise big man that
can be a perennial all star. He may be the best big man prospect in the draft
since Dwight Howard. Even better, he’s mature and intelligent.
Then Tom Benson—the owner of the scandal-laden New Orleans
Saints—finally buys the franchise a month before the lottery after passing on
the offer for a year. HMM….
Yahoo
Sports quotes a bunch of basketball executives as being maligned and
infuriated with the lottery results, calling it a “fix.”
USA
Today shows that more than 55 percent of fans believe the lottery was
fixed.
You look at history and see franchises—Patrick Ewing for the
New York Knicks and Derrick Rose for the Chicago Bulls—who truly needed the impossible to happen and it
has, sometimes predictably.
And that’s what makes all this too convenient for a team
that was owned by the league and couldn’t find a buyer in that terrible
basketball market with no real chance of winning any time soon.
Anthony Davis should be one of the game’s bright young stars
from day 2, but fairly amusing how he got there. Then again, I could ignore all the evidence that the draft is operated by an independent firm with representatives from each team present in the process.
By the way, the Nets didn’t get a top 3 pick and now lose
their pick to Portland for the Gerald Wallace trade. Deron Williams is supposed
to leave and they don’t have any chips to swap for a bitter Dwight Howard. I
love this league.
Contact Mike Mitchell at
michaelkennethmitchell@gmail.com.
2 comments:
Not sure what to think about the draft, but Stern certainly has too much power and it's disappointing to see the league run the way it is sometimes.
On a side note, what the hell were the Nets thinking when they gave up a pick for Gerald Wallace. Well, I think I know what they were thinking: "Oh #&%#$, we're not getting Dwight. We better get someone to appease Williams before he leaves as a FA". I understand that, sure. But Gerald Wallace? As a third star/player, sure. But as a running mate? Are you serious?!?
Yeah, that was one of the worst trades in the last five years. Easily.
I think the Russian owner is desperate, bored and apathetic. It's a toy for him.
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