We had two ties among the lottery ranks as of Thursday morning, but the league settled those late Friday. Minnesota and Memphis had been tied with the third worst record, and New York and the Clippers had shared 5th place in Bizarro World. The coin picked the Wolves and Knicks as victors in their flippin' wars.

It means little in a practical sense going into the lottery. For instance, Minnesota will have 138 combinations out of 1,000; Memphis will have 137. The difference is 0.1%. Where the real impact comes, though, is at the June draft. If the lottery holds everyone to form, Minnesota picks third, Memphis picks fourth, New York picks fifth, and L.A. picks sixth. The lowest Minnesota can pick is sixth; Memphis could drop to seventh. It's a bit of difference.

And while this is less serious than dropping out of the Top 3 on draft day, or losing LeBron James to a blind man, Memphis continues to be snake-bitten in these draft proceedings. Remember, the Grizz finished with the worst record in the league last year, but got lotto-leaped by Portland, Seattle, and Atlanta. In 2004, the Grizzlies owed Detroit its lotto pick unless it was the #1 pick. The Grizzlies won the #2 pick, which became Carmelo Anthony Dwyane Wade Chris Bosh ... nevermind.

Previously at FanHouse:
Kings Sending Lucky (Hopefully) Fan to Lottery

The Sonics decided to win out (two-game win streak! woo!), while Memphis and the Knicks stoked the Derby fire with nothin' but losses to finish out the year. All the developments of the past few days have been tallied, and here's your Ping Pong Derby: Final Report.



Miami ends up with a 25% shot at Pick #1, and a 64% probability of getting a Top 3 pick. They cannot fall further than 4th. Seattle's got a 20% chance at #1, and a 56% probability of sticking in the Top 3.

The two ties make things ... interesting. The league will flip a coin in each case later this week. The result will have no real bearing on the lottery proceedings on May 20 -- Minnesota and Memphis, for example, will split the balls available for the #3 and #4 teams. If it's an odd number, the coin flip winner will take the extra one. But the coin flip does have serious import with regards to draft order. A Minnesota coin flip win means Minnesota picks ahead of Memphis, unless Memphis vaults into the Top 3 by way of lottery win. It also means the lowest Minnesota could pick would be #6, while Memphis could fall as low as #7.

The same goes for New York and the Clippers. Last season, there was a three-way tie between New York, Charlotte, and Sacramento for #8. The coin flip results ended with Charlotte picking #8, New York giving Chicago its #9 pick, and Sacramento picking #10. That's a pretty big difference. The gulf between #3 and #4 (or #5 and #6) doesn't seem to be as large, but if some prospect comes out and wows everyone next month, this coin flip could end being huge.

Previously on FanHouse:
Ping Pong Derby Update: The Knicks Falter
Miami Wins Ping Pong Derby
Miami Takes Lead in Ping Pong Derby

This has to be one of the crazier promotions I have ever seen, if only because it could involve getting season tickets to a professional basketball team for a ridiculously low $43. Yes, that is American dineros. And yes, that is absurd. Of course, if you were to engage in this transaction, you could also end up paying over $200 for those tickets. That's because the Minnesota Timberwolves are basing the ticket price on what spot they land in the lottery. From Randball (via Rovell):

The deal: Your season ticket per game price is equal to whatever pick the Wolves get in the draft. They pick No. 1? $43 for 43 games, or $1 per game. Seriously. $86 for the No. 2 pick. And so on.

As you can see, there are a couple of catches. Also, as Rovell notes in an update, this promotion is only available to the first 500 people that sign up and each person is limited to 10 tickets. Still though, if you live in the greater Minneapolis area, or within three hours of the freaking city limits, how can you pass up this opportunity? 43 bucks for a season of Derrick Rose against 200 something to watch Al Jefferson and a pile of semi-scrubs? Um, yes please. Lock it in if they resign Gerald Green.

In a rare clip where we actually get audio of a player's conversation with an official, here we have Rasheed Wallace, um, discussing a call with referee Jim Clark. Seems like 'Sheed just wants things called consistently on both ends of the floor, and he isn't afraid to let the ref know about it. Listen to the clip, and you can hear him express is fearlessness to Clark at around the :30 mark.

Honestly, I don't know how Chauncey can shoot free throws with a straight face with this going on right next to him. Nice to see Ryan Gomes get a good laugh out of it as well. Now we know why 'Sheed seemingly gets T'd up with little explanation. It's because these conversations are probably going on all night long.

[via TrueHoop]

As we head into the final four days of the regular season, all the proverbial marbles are at stake for the six teams battling at the bottom of the standings. Your updated Ping Pong Derby scoreboard:



Minnesota wrested sole possession of third place from Memphis, sending the Grizz careening toward the Knicks and ... the insurgent Clippers! The Knicks, of course, could be in the 4th slot and battling for #3 (and its 50% shot for a top-3 pick). Instead, we might see the Knicks end up with only the sixth worst record in the league. Bummer.

We should note that last year's #4, 5 and 6 teams in the derby ended up with the top 3 picks ... in reverse order. (#6 Portland got #1 overall, #5 Seattle earned the second pick, and #4 Atlanta got the third pick.) Of course, the Grizz, Knicks, and Clips would be counting on lightning striking in the same spot twice.

Previously on FanHouse:
Miami Wins Ping Pong Derby
Miami Takes Lead in Ping Pong Derby

The real "story" behind Mark Madsen's most recent blog post is his reaction to the news that California has hired Mike Montgomery as the head coach of their men's basketball program. But there's a much funnier story hidden within the post, even if both of them stem from the fact that he can't really figure out whether or not he likes the school.

All I can remember about UC Berkeley is hostility. One time one of our walk on players from the East Bay almost got into an altercation with a UC Berkeley fan even before the game started! I think the fan threatened a lawsuit or someting. Then last year someone actually hijacked my Gmail email account! The sad thing was that I could see when he was online through the "Chat" functionality from another one of my gmail accounts. I 'chatted' with him online to my "old" account and threatened to get the FBI, CIA and every law enforcement agency possible on his tail unless he gave me back my account. Finally he releneted [sic] and sent me a message: 'You can have your email account back, the new password is 'UCBerkeley.''

There's just so much to love about this story. First, Madsen is technologically savvy enough to run his own website with a blog which he posts on "moderately". But the way in which he describes "the 'Chat' functionality" (as if the common person that might read the MadDogBlog doesn't know what gchat is) and then slaps quotation marks on "chatted" is just hysterical.

Funnier than that though, is that these normal Cal students are essentially picking on an NBA player -- he's like Squeak in BASEketball or something. And his only recourse? To make ridiculous threats about the FBI and CIA to this person, as opposed to saying "Dude, I'm an professional basketball player ... give me my email account before I buy your life or have you beat down", and assume that someone smart enough to get into Cal and hack a Gmail account doesn't know those threats are just ridiculous.

I also feel like I should point out that Mad Dog is trying to cash in on this "internet" "phenomenon" by putting Google Ads on his site, but with someone this clueless it almost doesn't seem worth it to make fun of him anymore. Plus, he might call the FBI on me.

For only the sixth time since Christmas, Miami wins. No, not a game. Of course not a game. Miami has basically sewn up the Ping Pong Derby, which means they'll have a 25% of drawing the #1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, and will pick no lower than 4th. Unless the Heat go on some sort of winning streak behind Blake Ahearn and Kasib Powell, they won't be caught by Seattle, Memphis, or Minnesota.

Here's the scoreboard. The jockeying is clearly for third at this point.



We could be on our way to five 60-loss teams! Yippee. By the way, each ping pong ball represents a 1% chance at the top pick in the draft. Miami comes in with a 25% chance, the Knicks have a 8% shot. (And that's basically their worst case -- the Clips, with 22 wins, probably won't catch them.)

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded NBA Correspondent, brings his exclusive NBA reporting to FanHouse. Check back here regularly for more videos.


Video link.

It seemed pretty random the other day when Timberwolves' owner Glen Taylor made a remark that he was of the opinion that KG tanked the last five games of last season. After all, we're only about a month from the end of this season, and Taylor's comments sounded like someone who was bitter that Garnett was leading someone else's team to the league's best record.

Garnett himself took the high road, basically refusing to answer back. It now appears that everyone from the Timberwolves organization to the league office is sticking up for KG. An NBA official was reported to have called Taylor to chastise him for the comments, and the Timberwolves issued a long statement attempting to "clarify" the original remarks. Here's an excerpt:

Mr. Taylor never intended this to a "cheap shot" or to call into question KG's overall effort, competitiveness, etc. He did however, want to make clear that the decision for KG to not play the last five games of the season, and the subsequent accusations in the media that the team was tanking it, were a result of KG deciding not to play the final five games.

I think we were all aware of that, but thanks for bringing it up a year later. The most interesting thing about these unwarranted comments though is how quickly the T'Wolves, and even the league office raced to backtrack and show their support for KG. And why not? He's had a huge hand in reviving the Celtics, and while I've questioned whether or not he's a clutch performer, no one can question his work ethic or intensity.

This time last year, it was all but official Memphis and Boston would finish as the worst two teams in the league ... and the two franchises in line to get Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. (How'd that work out? Oh.) In 2008, we have four teams clearly worse than the rest in Miami, Minnesota, Memphis and Seattle. Who has the lower upper hand in the ping pong bonanza?

Miami. The Heat made major strides this weekend, going 0-2 on Saturday and reaching the 50-loss plateau before Boston hit 50 wins. (Highly impressive.) Dwyane Wade could get shut down any week now, which could lead to another double-digit losing streak and cinch the first seat in the May lottery.

Minnesota. Wolves, Wolves, what are you thinking? Minny went back-to-back over the Kings and Clips, placing them 2-1/2 games better than Miami. The Wolves have looked decent of late, going 3-7 in their last 10. Depending on the continued efficacy of Al Jefferson and Rashad McCants, they could finish the worst or #4 in the derby.

Memphis. If anyone can catch the Heat, it's these awful Grizzlies. They are 2-12 since trading Pau Gasol, and 12 of the final 20 games come on the road. If Miami cannot be caught, 29th place in the league is certainly attainable. Memphis is one game better than Minnesota currently.

Seattle. The Sonics are a half-game better than Memphis, but have 10 of 19 remaining games at home. Not to disparage Jefferson, Shawn Marion or Rudy Gay -- they aren't tanking -- but you get the sense Kevin Durant desperately wants to win as much as possible. Despite P.J. Carlesimo's best efforts, KD has not been broken by repeated losing yet.

My guess: Miami #1, Memphis #2, Minnesota #3, Seattle #4.