You Can Resume Breathing Now, There Will Be No Oden in Philly

The NBA draft order was determined tonight, and as expected, the Sixers top pick will come at #12. After rattling off a series of wins after dealing Allen Iverson mid-season, the Sixers played themselves out of contention for a top pick and into the "Oh god, please don't take Joakim Noah" range. The good news is, the Celtics, who blatantly lost on purpose and ended up with the second best shot at landing Greg Oden or Kevin Durant, got boned and drew the #5 pick. As I was already resigned to the Sixers at 12, nothing could have made me happier than Boston sliding out of reach of a guaranteed franchise player.

I'll never understand the NBA lottery. They make this whole show about it, but they conduct the biggest reason for excitement behind closed doors, replacing the PowerBall suspense moment with something that resembles 10 minutes of the Golden Globes (the 10 minutes where they give the awards for best sound editing and best makeup). There is of course the popular belief that the lottery is rigged, and since we don't see the lottery balls drawn, there's plenty of reason to believe it's a scam. But if it is, David Stern is dumber than we thought, sending Oden to a small market like Portland... Philly would have been a much better fit for the conspiracy pick...

Not Every Team Deserves Oden or Durant [Simmons]
TrueHoop Lottery Live Blog [TrueHoop]

Comments

[GreggyD]

I think it sucks that the Sixers didn't even move up one or two picks, but I as well had succumbed to the fact that they would probably stay at number 12. I am holding out hope that they can trade up and get perhaps even a top 5 pick. Billy King might be smart to do that, his job is probably riding on this draft/offseason.

Also, there is talk that Andre Iguodala might be available...what do people think about that? I have mixed feelings.

[Tom Goodman]

You have to love Billy King. Following the announcements of the draft order he had this to say:

"Having the 12th pick in this draft is exciting because this draft is so deep."

Yeah, Billy, it sure is exciting to know your team failed to get a chance to draft either one of two franchise-making big men.

I also found his quote about the tough luck of winning lotteries more than a little disengenuous:

"I was prepared to draft 12 even though I was hoping to move up," King said after the 23d annual lottery. "It's like when you buy the Powerball every Wednesday and Saturday. I dream of what I can buy, and I wake up in the morning and realize that it's time to go back to work."

Poor guy. He makes millions annually and has never shown even the slightest ability to really earn them. I'd say Billy won the lottery a long time ago.

[erik]

to see celtic fans suffer was well worth it. we lost too but we didn't try to.

[Ricky - Sixers4guidos]

just wanted to say hi, this is a cool blog and I added it in my blog roll

Tom Goodman, it's true, Billy King already won the lottery a long time ago, miracles happen only once...

and dont' get me started about Celtics fans...

Ricky rrom Italy