The quote that has always summed up the NBA Lottery, to me, came from Scott Skiles. This came many years ago, before a game between the Bucks and the Bulls. Another reporter and I were fishing for laudatory quotes about Derrick Rose and Thibs and how great things were for Skiles’ old team. Skiles, always honest, didn’t take the bait. “We’re all pretty foolish if we don’t realize the effects of luck in life,” he said. “It’s pretty lucky the Bulls got Derrick Rose. When you look at the percentages, that’s very lucky.”
Years later, Skiles’ old boss John Paxson said, “Luck and hope are not a strategy or a plan.” (This was when he expressed confidence in Jim Boylen’s leadership, mind you.)
All this is to say, the Bulls could really use some of that D-Rose luck right now. They have a 1.7 percent chance for the top pick tonight, just like they did in 2008.