Grizzlies Land #12 Pick

I went into the official draft lottery watch party last night with high expectations. I thought that the city would respond to a (comparatively) successful season and show up in full force to Jason's Deli at the corner of Poplar and Highland. I expected to see rabbits' feet, lucky pendants and more replica jerseys than I could count.

Additionally, I expected the Grizzlies to get a fairly high selection in the lottery. How hilarious would it be that the one year we aren't favored to get the #1 pick, we get it (or a high pick)? I thought, for some reason, the stars had aligned and we were finally going to get lucky. Don't ask me why I thought this; I don't know. Something just felt right.

What happened? I was wrong, very wrong, on both counts.

First, the watch party was more disappointing than the Grizzlies bench. That crowd I expected was merely 50 people small and there was no common connection between fans. Everyone basically just sat there. It wasn't a total loss, though, as attendees included a few titans of Memphis sports media (Geoff Calkins, Jarvis Greer, Eric Hasseltine, etc.) and Grizz. Oh, and I got a free Grizzlies flag (with 888-HOOP printed on it, just in case I had forgotten the ubiquitous season ticket hotline). Overall, however, it was an underwhelming experience and showed me that the city has yet to truly get behind the team.

I know, there wasn't much reason to come out to a watch party. We had only a 0.7% chance of landing the #1 overall pick and there were 11 teams with a better chance of winning the lottery. But, still, I thought the fans would come out. I guess I was wrong.

I was also wrong about the lottery itself. We didn't get the #1 pick, or a top pick that matter. We didn't move up at all. We got the #12 pick. Whatever. Honestly, I like this. It won't look as bad when we screw up the #12 pick as it did when we screwed up the #2 pick last year.

I can't wait to see what happens,

Owen