The NBA Draft Lottery was held tonight in of all places, Seacacus, NJ. 14 teams all had their hopes resting on the bounces of 1,000 ping pong balls. The Boston Celtics had the second best odds of getting either the first or second pick in the upcoming draft. Why is this noteworthy you ask? Well because with either of those picks, you were guaranteed either Ohio State big man Greg Oden or University of Texas scoring star Kevin Durant.

As I said the Celt’s had the second best odds, the Memphis Grizzlies by benefit of the league’s worst record had the best odds at one of those picks. Those teams ended up getting the fourth (Memphis) and fifth (Celtics) picks. The Portland Trail Blazers, who already have this years Rookie of the Year, Brandon Roy got the first pick and almost assuredly will add Oden to their fine stable of young talent.

The Seattle Super Sonics, who are on their way out of Seattle, got the second pick and will most likely play Durant along side former UConn stand out Ray Allen. The Atlanta Hawks were third, (they also have the 11th pick) followed by Memphis and Boston. When the Celtics were announced as getting the fifth pick, you could hear Red Auerbach spinning in his grave at my house in Connecticut. I kept waiting for Tommy Heinsohn, who was the Celtics rep, to start screaming like he does during the FSN broadcasts. “Are you kidding me?!?!?!?! You’re kidding right?!?!?!? What kind of a joke is this??!?!?!? We’re the greatest franchise in the history of the NBA and you treat us like this?!?!?!? But Tommy practically slammed his head off the table in front of him. Coach Doc Rivers looked stunned and all Danny Ainge could muster up was a “wow’.

The Celtics really needed one of those two picks to be relevant again.

Now unless the fifth pick turns out to be an Amare Stoudemire or a Dirk Nowitzki it maybe a long time before they are. Some of the players projected as the possible fifth pick include Florida C/F Al Horford, Egg Fu Young, (actually Yi Jianlian) a Chinese guy who is 7 foot tall, Georgetown C Roy Hibbert and OSU point guard Mike Conley, Jr.

The rest of the draft order is:

6. Milwaukee
7. Minnesota
8. Charlotte
9. Chicago
10. Sacramento
11. Atlanta
12. Philadelphia
13. New Orleans
14. LA Clippers

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