The Official Bobcats Draft Lottery Party Was A Sad, Sad Time

The Bobcats opened up Time Warner Cable Arena for fans to come and watch last night's draft lottery. A lovely gesture, one much appreciated by the 40 or so people who showed up. As we know by now, the Bobcats slipped to No. 2. There was shock, anger, sadness, apathy, shuffling off into the Charlotte night. The cycle continues. As if to commiserate, Charlotte is offering a deal where if you buy a season ticket plan, you get the entire next season for free.

Probabilities are frustrating. While the Bobcats had the best chance of any team to get the top overall pick, it was 3-to-1 against them actually winning it. They actually had a better-than-even chance of falling out of the top two, so this incredibly optimistic splash page isn't out of bounds.

So let's talk fix: there is none. Yes, the team was recently sold to Tom Benson after a long and fruitless search for an owner, and yes, "David Stern promised Tom Benson a No. 1 pick to build around" is a fun and easily digestible conspiracy theory. And yes, Anthony Davis was rocking a (Charlotte) Hornets cap two weeks ago. But there's no way the NBA would rig the lottery in such a blatant direction. Unless...what if they rigged it for New Orleans, knowing no one would believe they would do something so obvious? BRAAAHM!

Or, you know, maybe it's the vagaries of math. The Hornets had a not-insignificant 13.7 percent chance of landing the first pick, and you don't see anyone crying foul when Powerball players win jackpots with exponentially worse odds.