<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The first thought for Lakers owner Jerry Buss was to find the biggest lottery winner in United States history. The second thought was to send professional poker player Daniel Negreanu, who drew a straight flush to eliminate Buss from a tournament in March. With the Lakers in the NBA draft lottery for just the second time in their history, Buss joked with reporters about wanting to make a big splash. The problem was that league rules allow for only person directly associated with a team to serve as representative at tonight's lottery. So the call went to Jeanie Buss, the owner's daughter and team's executive vice president of business operations, to sit on stage at the NBA Entertainment Studios in Secaucus, N.J., and bear witness to how the pingpong balls play out. "It's not a position that you really want to be in," Jeanie Buss said. "We had a really disappointing year, we had a lot of bad luck. I'm hoping this is our chance to finally have some good luck go our way." It has been a month since the Lakers finished their 34-48 season, missing the playoffs for the first time in 11 years, and tonight's lottery figures to be symbolic more than anything, given their long odds of moving up in the draft order. The Lakers will have a 1.4 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick and a 5.04 percent chance of moving into the top three. If the lottery holds to form, the Lakers will pick 10th in the June 28 draft. They also could move down if Orlando, the Clippers, Cleveland or Minnesota defy the odds and move up. The Clippers, who will send coach Mike Dunleavy as their representative, have a 0.7 percent chance at the No. 1 pick. The only previous time the Lakers were in the lottery was 1994, when they ended up with the No. 10 pick and selected Eddie Jones. It has been so long, in fact, that Buss said she needed to look up how exactly the lottery worked on NBA.com. The league will select four pingpong balls out of 14 from a drum, with each four-number combination (there are 1,000 possible) assigned in advance to a team. The Atlanta Hawks have 250 combinations and the best chance at the No. 1 pick; the Lakers have 14. The Clippers have seven. For her part, Jeanie Buss will be toting a purse with her eight Lakers championship rings and also will be bringing a lucky stuffed animal given to her by her mother. She also has a message for fans tuning in before Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. "I'm asking for all Laker fans who've been so supportive this year, through so much disappointment," Buss said, "that they all sit down in their lucky chair, wear their lucky shirt, put on their lucky hat and tune in Tuesday night and send positive vibes."</div> Source Come Jeannie bring us home a top 3 pick!
STUPID ROCK! Thanks a lot Phil. At least the Lakers didn't drop further down and remained at the 10th spot. With the Bucks drafting first and the Hawks drafting second, the Lakers are guaranteed Andrew Bogut will stay in the East, instead of potentially being on New Orleans. With the Bobcats dropping out of the top 4 and landing a player they really wanted, they might be open to trading down a few spots for more picks this year (Lakers have two 2nd rounders,) future considerations (Miami's 1st rounder next year), or cheap young talent (Brian Cook?, Slava?). If the Lakers cannot pull off a deal to move up, there is still solid talent at #10. I'm hoping Franz Vazquez slips to the Lakers, but they will probably end up with Tiago Splitter.
