Tonight is the NBA Draft Lottery. How does that affect the Erie BayHawks? Well, it really doesn’t have much of a direct effect on them, but it’s not easy to come up with D-League news every day at this time of year. Besides, I needed a good excuse to link to Hardwood Paroxysm’s NBA Draft Lottery Drinking Game.
If you’d prefer a more journalistic look at the draft lottery, I recommend Henry Abbott’s quality work on his TrueHoop blog.
So, it’s true. Neither of the BayHawks’ NBA affiliates have any ping pong balls in tonight’s lottery. Philadelphia is more concerned with its head coaching situation, and Cleveland is preoccupied with a little something called the Eastern Conference Finals. But they will have picks later in the draft that could end up seeing time in Erie.
In any case, I’ll be watching the full glorious hour of contrived television tonight. My life just wouldn’t be the same without the staples of the NBA Draft Lottery: ping pong balls; large, numbered envelopes with NBA logo cards inside, and of course, the random assortment of general managers, executives, and players asked to bring good luck to the lottery as the team’s representative, also known as the Elgin Baylor award.
Plus the draft lottery is the precursor for the NBA Draft. The draft is sort of like the NBA’s final exam before school is let out for the summer, and we’re all left with a lot of free time and a lot of baseball. Yes, there are summer league games and free agency, but from an NBA standpoint, you get the idea. NBA Finals. NBA Draft. Long wait until next season.
From a D-League standpoint, the draft lottery doesn’t have a whole lot of significance tonight. Most of the players taken in the lottery won’t see time in the D-League, but then again, you never know. As the D-League grows and young players continue to flock to the NBA, it may become a more regular stop for rookies to hone their skills before testing the NBA waters. For now, it’s a time for the NBAs have-nots to hope and pray the bouncing balls bounce their way.
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