This week, Danny shared his thoughts on some of the top stories in the sports world:
The Boston Celtics’ season is over, but that doesn’t mean the drama in the NBA is over. Talk about a league that is always in the news. We know the NFL strives to be a 24/7, 365 news source. But the NBA seems to be ready to match that.
Not only are the Conference Finals underway, but the drama surrounding Tuesday night’s NBA Draft Lottery was just as exciting. Except, of course, for the cringeworthy live commentary from the ESPN broadcast team during that Lottery. It’s almost as if ESPN said, “Let’s make this the most awkward NBA Draft Lottery of all time!”
The show still went on, and it was the New Orleans Pelicans who ended up winning the lottery and getting the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft. Wow.
New Orleans had just a 6 percent chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick. The Memphis Grizzlies also had a 6 percent chance, and somehow ended up with the No. 2 overall pick. The New York Knicks had the worst record in the league, and had the best chance to get the top pick, at 14 percent, but ended up with the No. 3 overall pick.
This year’s Lottery was a little different. Instead of the worst team — the Knicks — having a 25 percent chance of winning the lottery, the league decided to give each of the three worst teams a 14 percent chance. So, not only did the Knicks have a 14 percent chance, but so did the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns, the second and third worst teams in the NBA this year.
With the top prize in this year’s Draft being Duke superstar Zion Williamson, is safe to say that the Knicks got screwed. None of that would matter if Kevin Durant and/or Kyrie Irving decide to make the move to New York, but still, for the Knicks, it would’ve been nice to get that No. 1 overall pick, whether it be to draft Williamson or to possibly trade for someone like Anthony Davis.
Even though the Pelicans now have the No. 1 overall pick and will be expected to draft Williamson, they’ll still probably have to trade Davis this summer, mainly because Davis and his agent have made it clear that they will not be re-signing with New Orleans when he becomes a free agent next summer. So if you’re the Pelicans, perhaps you send Davis to the Lakers for the No. 4 overall pick, which Los Angeles received in Tuesday night’s lottery.
The Lakers had just a 2 percent chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick, and somehow ended up with the No. 4 overall pick, which obviously helps in their pursuit of a Davis trade.
As for the Celtics, they ended up receiving the No. 14 overall pick via the Sacramento Kings, who had the worst odds at the No. 1 overall pick with just a 1 percent chance. The C’s did not get Memphis’ pick, because it’s top-8 protected. And since the Grizzlies ended up with the No. 2 overall pick, they won’t have to give it up to the C’s just yet. That means the pick they owe the Celtics is top-6 protected next year, and unprotected in 2021.
—Speaking of drama, the tag line for the TNT television network is, “TNT, we know drama.” We see that with their NBA broadcasts. But we’ll also now see it with their new partnership with “All Elite Wrestling.” TNT (WarnerMedia) and AEW announced the deal on Wednesday, which will include a new weekly show that’s rumored to be called “Tuesday Night Dynamite” and is expected to begin in the fall.
Here’s part of the press release:
“Later this year, WarnerMedia will provide exclusive multi-platform access for fans to watch AEW events, airing live weekly matches on TNT in prime time, as well as streaming them through WarnerMedia’s B/R Live and on pay-per-view. A leading digital sports enterprise, B/R Live’s high fan engagement will provide an invaluable opportunity to build AEW’s audience.”
AEW was founded by Tony Khan, co-owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fullham F.C., and the son of Shahid Khan. Tony Khan serves as the President and CEO of AEW, a wrestling promotion that will attempt to compete with Vince McMahon’s WWE. So far, AEW has the roster to do it, headlined by Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Cody Rhodes.
The last time TNT was involved in the pro wrestling industry was with WCW, until McMahon bought WCW and put it all under the WWE brand.
Needless to say, things are about to get interesting.Listen to “The Danny Picard Show” at PodcastOne. Also available on iTunes, Spotify, and dannypicard.com. Subscribe to Danny’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/dann
