http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-4 ... Balls.htmlThe Clippers didn't just win th first pick. They won the second pick too! The first four ball combination was 5, 3, 6, 10. Bingo. Clippers get the top pick. The second combination was 5, 6, 3, 4. Also the Clippers! The balls were placed back in the machine for a do-over, which went to the Grizzlies. I don't know what the chances are of this happening (the Clippers had about a 17% chance each of getting the first and second picks) but it has to be about as likely as a power outage, which as I'll explain would have been a lot more fun.
Sacramento: Stiff Upper Lip
Pop quiz: Who owns the Sacramento Kings? The Maloofs! Of course. Everyone knows that.
But not just the Maloofs. Also, it turns out, a guy named John Kehriotis. He owns a lot of property in Sacramento, an Embassy Suites, and various other things. He is present with the same good luck charm that helped bring the team Jason Williams back when the Kings were a role model franchise. It's a little plastic troll-looking thing that Geoff Petrie, we learn, calls "the man."
Kehriotis is somehow doing a reasonably convincing job of being upbeat ("we're going to get a good player"), even though the team with the worst record in the NBA, with the worst arena in the NBA, and just fell to fourth, the worst pick they could have possibly had.
There has been talk, lately, that the team may flee Sacramento. The top overall pick would have been helpful in generating the kind of excitement that will be necessary to get locals excited about paying for a new arena. The fourth pick, in a weak draft? Potentially helpful, but nothing to build a campaign around. Perhaps the most exciting thing on the Kings' horizon turned out badly.
So he says that Geoff Petrie has a gift with the draft, and that fourth is an excellent pick. He says "there's a high probability we'll have a new coach soon" and says interviews with Eddie Jordan and Paul Westphal went very well.
"We want to stay in Sacramento," he explains. "We're working with the mayor on a new arena." When will we know if there's an arena forthcoming?
No schedule.
He explains that a new arena really is necessary. "Since high-definition [TV]," he says, "you really have got to offer a lot to be competitive." He talks about better restrooms, restaurants, and club seats. He talks about having two tiers of luxury boxes. He says the current visiting locker room is not suitable for a high-school team. He says people these days want better food, and says that creating a certain kind of ambience is marketing. He says that a better facilities can help the team -- because players want to be in nice places.
In this economy, with this lackluster team, and now this pick ... the whole thing just feels so unlikely.
I ask him if it seems weird, to be in this room, having important things like this decided by that machine, a yard from us, that spits out lottery balls.
He says he thinks the system is a good one.
