RealGM

The Cavs and Hornets actually tied for the third-worst record in the league last season at 21-45, and the Cavs won a coin flip after the season to break that tie. Had they lost the coin flip -- or won one more game to drop behind New Orleans -- they'd have owned the combination that won the lottery on Wednesday.

"Oh, so close," said Cavs vice chairman Jeff Cohen, who was in the room for the drawing as he was last year.

I was in the room, too, just like last year. But this time I was the only reporter covering the Cavs who was present, along with a reporter from the Bay Area and one from Sports Illustrated.The room, of course, was totally different.

Last year we were in the NBA Entertainment Studio in Secaucus, N.J. This year we were in the studio that normally houses "Good Morning America," just a few steps off Times Square. There actually were two studios used for Wednesday's televised lottery.

Cohen and I were in one studio with representatives of all the lottery teams except the Milwaukee Bucks, along with a handful of NBA executives and security guards, maybe a total of 30 people. All of us surrendered our phones, pagers, computers and any communications devices upon entering.

The NBA executives were seated at five round glass tables. Cohen was seated with Dell Demps, general manager of the winning Hornets. The right side of the room was dominated by eight large charts on easels, containing the 1,000 possible draft combinations divided among the 14 lottery teams. The left side of the room featured a large flat screen television and a kitchen, along with snacks, coffee, water and soft drinks.

It doesn't seem to matter when you point out that respected reporters -- each of whom would love to unearth evidence of a massive conspiracy, which would make their careers -- have been regular witnesses of the actual lottery process for the last few years, and have each reported the exact same thing -- the process is wholly transparent, and there is no manipulation afoot.