Secaucus, New Jersey was ablaze last night as the NBA Draft Lottery’s endless permutations and symbolic ping pong balls produced the winner of the number one pick (and either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant on June 28), the Portland Trail Blazers. This is the highest in the draft Portland has been since the fateful day in 1984, when they passed on a young man by the name of Michael Jordan to take Sam Bowie. Portland last had the number one overall pick in 1978, when they drafted former Minnesota Golden Gopher Mychal Thompson, who went on to have a decent twelve year career with Portland, San Antonio, and the Los Angeles Lakers, but nowhere near Bill Walton, whom they drafted first overall in 1974.
The other big winner, surprisingly, was the New York Knicks, who ended up drawing the ninth overall pick, before the Chicago Bulls saw fit to swap picks with them as part of the Eddy Curry trade. Although there was a slim shot the Knicks actually could win the lottery, the backlash in New York would have been huge if the Knicks won the pick, and Greg Oden, only to have the Bulls snatch it out of their hands, pat Knicks general manager Isiah Thomas on the back, and thank them for the real treat.
The losers of the lottery, however, were the three teams that, ironically, were the three biggest losers of the season – the Memphis Grizzlies, Boston Celtics, and Milwaukee Bucks. Granted, they did not slip far – drawing fourth, fifth, and sixth respectively – but the impact big men, with the possible exception of Florida’s Al Horford and the unknown that is Yi Jianlian, will be long off the board, leaving players like Florida’s Corey Brewer, Kansas’ Julian Wright, and Ohio State’s Mike Conley, Jr. – good players, but not necessarily a franchise player.
Below is the full list of first round draft picks:
01. Portland
02. Seattle
03. Atlanta
04. Memphis
05. Boston
06. Milwaukee
07. Minnesota
08. Charlotte
09. Chicago (via New York)
10. Sacramento
11. Atlanta (via Indiana)
12. Philadelphia
13. New Orleans/Oklahoma City
14. Los Angeles Clippers
15. Detroit (via Orlando)
16. Washington
17. New Jersey
18. Golden State
19. Los Angeles Lakers
20. Miami
21. Philadelphia (via Denver)
22. Charlotte (via Toronto)
23. New York (via Chicago)
24. Phoenix (via Cleveland)
25. Utah
26. Houston
27. Detroit
28. San Antonio
29. Phoenix
30. Philadelphia (via Dallas)
