Before we talk about the disappointment of all the teams who didn't win the first or second pick in last night's NBA Draft Lottery, let's look at the team that did win, the Portland Trail Blazers. (The official favorite team of Henry Abbott at True Hoop, who was at the lottery last night and, amusingly, is only a month-plus into his ESPN tenure and is already praising the free buffets.) CNBC's Darren Rovell crunches the numbers and finds the Trail Blazers' good fortune is going to net them about $6.3 million next year alone.
Though some Portland fans have already put together a Draft Kevin Durant blog, it seems likely that Greg Oden is going to be the first pick, and Durant's going to be playing in either Seattle or Oklahoma City. For all the disappointed teams and fans this morning, Portland -- a franchise that has been trying to crawl its way back -- and Seattle -- a franchise that just found itself a desperately needed identity -- were the lucky winners. Before we delve into those whose hearts were crushed, we salute the Pacific Northwest, which might very well be the center of the NBA universe for the next, oh, 10 years ago. Well, if Seattle keeps its team, anyway.