Oh, and this is fun: The Knicks bought the 29th overall pick in the draft from the Lakers for $3 million. It seemed like such an effortless transaction - as if the Lakers were unloading a television or refrigerator. I wonder whether they put an ad on Craigslist.
If you're the owner of a bad club that no one cares about, why not sell all your picks for money and take a long vacation? Glen Taylor, owner of the Timberwolves - a team that started the night with an absurd four first-rounders - should head down to the Madison Square Garden floor right now to hunt for rubes. If the Lakers can collect a cool $3 mil for No. 29, Taylor could scalp his picks for a hell of a lot more. (A tip for Taylor: Start with Clippers owner Donald Sterling.)
If the rest of the night is even half as entertaining as the warm-up act, it should be an interesting evening.
7:39 p.m.: Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin just went No. 1 overall to the Clippers. Griffin and the Clippers executives seem fairly unmoved. Maybe that's because it was a foregone conclusion. Or maybe they watched ESPN's Clippers montage. It showed Clippers picks/busts and other memorable team moments.
Ever see footage of the Hindenburg burning and vanishing in a snap? It's sort of washed out and horrifying. Same thing as the Clippers montage.
8:04: The Minnesota Timberwolves just used the first of their many picks on Ricky Rubio at No. 5. No one is sure whether the 18-year-old Spaniard is worthy of being drafted that high - including the kid.
"The fifth notch is too high for me," Rubio said. Hmm, maybe the Spanish-to-English translation got jumbled in his head. At least he has a nice mop of hair. If basketball doesn't work out, he can pretend to be one of the Jonas Brothers and mooch off unsuspecting women.
