There’s bad luck, “an unfortunate set of circumstances,” being outright cursed and the New York Knicks.
Heading into Thursday night’s NBA Lottery, the same team that missed out on the Zion Williamson sweepstakes last summer, then scared off Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving as free agents, had a nine percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Sadly, once fate got wind of these odds, it keeled over with laughter before muttering, “Oh, you really thought I was gonna let y’all live?” Then with a snap of its finger and a foot firmly entrenched in Knicks owner James Dolan’s ass, fate did what fate does: wipe its ass with the Knicks yet again.
You hate to see it, but it sure as hell didn’t stop NBA Twitter from clowning.
For those wondering, the last time the Knicks won the top pick in the NBA Draft was in 1985—Patrick Ewing anyone?—and it’s been a torrential downpour of disappointment and disarray ever since.
The Golden State Warriors, whose 2020 season might as well have contracted COVID-19 after finishing with the worse record in the league, were rewarded with the No. 2 pick in the upcoming draft. But Thursday night’s big winner was the Minnesota Timberwolves, who entered the night with a 14 percent chance to win the top pick and did exactly that.
“There’s a lot of steps left in this journey for us, but today was a significant one,” Gersson Rosas, Timberwolves president of basketball operations, said after winning the NBA Lottery. “We’re excited about the potential level of player that we can add to our organization, but at the same time, we are going to be very aggressive and look at every avenue to improve this team. We have two young stars in Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell that we’re building this together [with]. We’ve got a great young core that’s young and being one of the youngest, if not the youngest, team in the NBA. We have a lot of upside.
“But this allows us to take a major step in talent acquisition, whether it’s in the draft or the trade market, whatever the case may be. It really positions us well moving forward.”
The Timberwolves have plenty of holes on their roster and are expected to take either Georgia phenom Anthony Edwards or combo-guard LaMelo Ball with the top pick. Meanwhile, the Knicks will be off somewhere crying in the car.
Please keep the Knicks faithful in your thoughts and prayers.