Bulpett on the C's Lottery Drawing

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

Peter May reports that Doc Rivers said New Jersey will take Chris
Mihm with the first pick. Kenny Anderson says the Celtics need
a presence in the middle: a rebounder, shot-blocker, "'somebody to
change up our makeup in the middle.'"


Celts flirt with lottery windfall
by Steve Bulpett 
Monday, May 22, 2000

To the public eye, yesterday's NBA draft lottery was a fairly open and
shut case for the Celtics. Mostly shut.

They failed to move up into the top three picks, retaining the No. 11
slot. New Jersey, meanwhile, used a home-state advantage (the event was
held in Secaucus) to jump from the seventh-worst record this past season
to the No. 1 pick in the draft.

But behind the scenes, prior to the made-for-TV airing of the final
results, the C's heart rate was raised a tad as the first two picks were
drawn in front of team representatives.

The lotto procedure has four ping pong balls being drawn for each of the
first three picks, with each of the 13 non-playoff teams being assigned
a certain number of four-ball combinations (the Clippers had the most,
250, while Orlando had the fewest, five).

The Celts had just nine combinations in their arsenal, but while vice
president for media relations Jeff Twiss looked on in the private
proceeding, the first two numbers in the drawings for each of the first
two picks corresponded to Boston tickets.

``They start off and the first two balls that came up were numbers that
were in our picks,'' said Twiss. ``I'm sitting there going, `Whoa, this
looks good.' Then the next number came through and it was applicable to
someone in the middle of the pack. So I knew we were out of the loop
there.

``Then they started drawing the next combination of numbers, for the
second pick, and again we had the first two numbers,'' Twiss said. ``The
next number was a low number, and I knew we were out of it again. But
the fourth number was one of ours, too, so we had three of the four
numbers.''

Thus, the Celtics were just one number away from the second overall pick
in the June draft and two numbers away from the first choice.

Reached in West Virginia, Celtics general manager Chris Wallace was
informed of the story behind the event that he watched from a friend's
house in Buckhannon.

``Wow,'' he said. ``That's amazing.''

The Celts were represented on the dais by point guard Kenny Anderson,
who planted his tongue in cheek and espoused a conspiracy theory to
explain the Nets' victory. New Jersey had a 4.4 percent chance to land
the top pick.

``We got a bum rap,'' said Anderson, a former Net. ``There was some
trickery going on back there. I told Jeff to check the room before
anything went down, but I guess he couldn't find anything. It had to be
an inside job. They had it rigged. They went from seven to one? C'mon,
man. What's that?''

Vancouver also made a move, going from the fourth-worst record to second
position, while the Clippers fell to third and the Bulls to fourth.
Chicago will also have the seventh pick, courtesy of Washington.

The Celtics do have a chance at something good at 11. Allan Houston,
Bonzi Wells, Terrell Brandon and Tyrone Hill have been taken in that
position in the last 10 years.

``I carry the drafts from 1990 in a folder with me in my briefcase, and
I look at them often,'' Wallace said. ``There's guys in every draft.
It's just your job to find them.''

As the Celts search, they will be looking high before low, hoping to
spot a tall talent they can develop.

After New Jersey and Vancouver, the Clippers will pick third, followed
by Chicago, Orlando (using a pick it got from Golden State), Atlanta,
Chicago (via Washington), Cleveland, Houston, Orlando, Boston, Dallas
and Orlando.

The Clippers (15-67) had a 25 percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick
in the draft and the Bulls (17-65) had a 20 percent chance of winning
the lottery.