There's only one time in sports that I'm nervous as hell and Uconn's not playing for the chip, my team's not playing in a game 7 or that there's not a game on at all. And that would be the NBA Draft Lottery. See, if you're a Sixers fan then you know those ping pong balls literally hold our future with each bounce. And if they don't bounce the right way (like they haven't for the past 2 years) it just brings another year of misery to the city of brotherly love. If you read my piece of why I call Sam Hinkie Danny Ocean then you already know that the past 2 draft lotteries haven't worked in conjunction with the heist Mr. Ocean is trying to pull off. And if last night's lottery didn't end perfect for us, it could've set back the franchise and the city I love light years....but it didn't. For once, those ping pong balls decided to cooperate and blessed us with the number 3 pick.
Now, some folk who aren't Sixers fans or basketball purists may be wondering, "why would you want the #3 pick and not the #1?" Which is a totally legitimate question. But the answer is quite simple. We needed the #3 pick because we need to draft D'Angelo Russell outta Ohio State & if we got the #1 pick, I KNOW Hinkie wasn't gonna draft him. Hinkie would've drafted another big man and we're good on big men. Now, some cats will say it's always better the get the #1 pick so you can have leverage with the pick, blah, blah, blah. And I don't necessarily disagree with that IF you're GM isn't Danny Ocean. But with Danny behind the helm, he's gonna take Okafor or Towns (2 players who I don't want) and now have 3 big men along with Embid and Noel and then he'll try trading one of them. Now some would say that's a dope plan. I disagree. Why? BECAUSE WE NEED A POINT GUARD! If you've paid any attention to the landscape of the NBA right now, everything is point guard driven. Mike Connely goes down and the Griz get blown out. He comes back and they win the next 2 games. If Wall didn't miss 3 games against Atlanta, I think that they end up winning that series. The top 2 MVP candidates were point guards (I know Harden is technically a 2 but dude averages more assists then most true point guards do) and THAT'S what we need. Plus. there aren't any points in the league that any team is gonna give up for whatever package Danny puts together that I would want. So if you can't trade for a dope point guard, at least draft one.
After we got the #3 pick (my 9 year old daughter was literally doing a praise dance thanking God) ya'll already know I took to twitter to welcome D'Angelo to the city of brotherly, cheesesteaks and strong arm robberies (don't forget Lou Williams caught the L) and different folk were chiming in with their 2 cents. My dude G hit me saying he hopes management makes the right pick. My response? There's no other pick for management to make but Russell. Which made one of my followers Coach Perk come back with we should draft Emmanuel Mudiay. My respsone? Have you ever actually seen dude hoop? Which to everyone walking the earth who isn't from Texas, the answer would be no. All we've seen are highlight tapes and guess what highlight tapes feature? Highlights! No turnovers or missed shots or anything remotely that's a knock on your game. With Russell, I watched every Ohio State game that was on TV so I've seen him hoop. Does dude have holes in his game? Of course he does but if I gotta choose between a dude who I watched with my own two eyes vs. a dude who all I've seen is you tube highlights, I'm going with the dude I've watched all season. Taking Mudiay would be like picking a chick who've you've never seen and none of your peoples have seen but word on the street is she MAY be a dime over a chick you already know is bad. To me it's a no brainer.
Yeah, the night would have been perfect if the Heat fell to #11 and the Lakers fell to #6 and we scooped both their picks but I knew that wasn't gonna happen, especially with the Laker's pick. But at the end of the day God (I don't do the whole basketball gods stuff and yes, I believe that God cares about sports just like he cares about everything else) has finally smiled down on my city and given us the pick we needed which I truly didn't think was gonna happen. Knowing our luck I figured we'd either move down to the #2 pick or drop to the #4 pick but we didn't. We got the exact pick we needed and we'll draft the exact player we need. So even though we've had that black cloud over us for the past 3 years that Nas was talking about, it's finally found a new nigga to follow.
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