A year ago I sat in this very same room on this same night, at the same time, and I was electric. All full of the unbelievable enthusiasm that comes with the team you love coming out on top of one of the strangest rituals in sports: The NBA Draft Lottery.

This year, it's a whole different deal. My experience this year revolves around a few moments, the first of which has nothing at all to do with basketball. In fact, you should probably skip this first part, unless you want to know what I had to dinner.

Eating Like a Star
I arrived here not really certain why I had come. I mean, what of import happens here that is not evident on TV?  Do you need me to tell you that the Bulls won? This is the kind of thing I was wondering as I walked in. Why was I here? Then I entered the big tent outside the NBA's headquarters that serves as lotto central, and remembered.

THIS was why I came.

The buffet, at most sporting events, is a lot like the school cafeteria. But for whatever reason, at this event, they go all out. I was only here mere minutes before I had a plate in my hand. It was hours before most people eat dinner. I didn't care.

So there I was, dishing myself a plate of roasted fingerling potatoes, when it occurred to me: The NBA is generous in feeding reporters at various events. But they have demonstrated time and again that they do not believe there is a need to splurge on high-end food for the news hounds. This catering expense, I thought, was not made with the intent of wooing the media.

Mixing in the same area were all the honchos, from Jay-Z to Larry Bird. I think I speak for every journalist when I say that I was more than happy to ride their epicurean coattails. 

With a full plate in hand, I struck up a conversation with somebody or other, when a security guard approached me and said ... uh, sir ... this food is not for the media. 

Wow. Really? Are you kidding me? This is some weird two-class set-up.

I felt sorry for this guard. I'm sure it wasn't his rule.

Nevertheless, we had a pressing problem: Salmon, salad, and those fingerlings on the plate in my hand. I offered the guy my plate of food. "You want it back?"

He didn't know what to make of that. He said something about some woman who had told him media could not eat that food. I took a seat, and ate. It was excellent. 

Kevin Durant's Face
Seattle has a long-term strategy based on draft picks. They will be drafting a lot in the next few years, and they need to do well. They were also a miserable team this season, and without a lottery, they'd be getting one of those coveted two top picks.

Not to mention, Kevin Durant is friendly with Michael Beasley.

The Sonics are a team that would really seem to want one of those transcendant players.

I watched Durant's face at the instant Adam Silver announced the Sonics would have the fourth pick. Bitter. Just for an instant, I thought he might puke. Not happy. Then that silent warrior gaze returned.

Afterwards, I asked him about his face in that moment. He was over it, and said all the right things. Then he added that he's not just friends with Beasley. He's also friends with Jerryd Bayless, O.J. Mayo, D.J. Augustin, and a lot of the other players in this draft. Did he have a preference among them? He made clear that he had no part whatsoever in that decision, and would trust the Sonics' basketball people to make the right pick.

Speaking of the Sonics' brain trust, I saw GM Sam Presti -- a notorious workaholic -- shortly thereafter, and said something consoling. He wasn't having any of it. "Now we can start planning," he said, with a little glee. He was the kid in school who loved it when the teachers handed out the tough assignments.

And one of the players he'll have to get to know well in the weeks to come is that O.J. Mayo character we have all been hearing so much about. From the video I have seen on Synergy, I would assume that the favorite for the fourth pick in the early going has to by Bayless.

Also, many who didn't get top picks were talking about last year. That was supposedly a two player draft, too, and yet third pick Al Horford had a crack at rookie of the year. 

Pat Riley is Not Buying the Two Player Thing
The idea is that Miami has the second pick, so it is set in stone that they will pick whichever one out of Michael Beasley or Derrick Rose is not taken first. Pat Riley cares not for that assumption. In his comments after winning the second pick in the draft that has already been called the Rose/Beasley draft, Riley muddied the water big time. After dragging O.J. Mayo's name into the conversation, he said: "That's everybody else's opinion -- who they feel is number one or number two. ... You know, we have a very good power forward in Miami right now and I'm not saying anything about that, but the point is that it's a position in which you can leverage and do a lot of different things. So, we will use the pick. It doesn't necessarily mean we're going to use it to draft somebody."

That Chicago Coaching Job Looks Good Now, Doesn't It?
I can't wait for the "eat your heart out, Mike D'Antoni" cracks to start rolling in from Bulls fans. D'Antoni, for his part, doesn't exactly seem to be sweating it, laughing off just about everything. They asked him what he thought the team should use the sixth pick on, and he said, with a smile: "guards, forwards, centers." (Chad Ford has the Knicks taking Danilo Gallinari. Ford says D'Antoni played with his dad in Italy.)

The follow-up to D'Antoni's joke is a serious line from Rudy Gay, about what the Grizzlies need: "We could use a defensive player, we could use another scorer, we could use a rebounder." About the only thing he didn't say was a point guard.

Taking a Fred Hoiberg Quote Out of Context
He's the assistant GM of the Timberwolves. Front office people are, publicly, generally always upbeat, saying things about bright futures. At one point, he talked at some length about the team's young players and said he was "not that worried" about the team's future. I think he meant it as a confidence booster, but it looks a little tepid on paper, huh? 

Winds  of Change
If the Bulls take Derrick Rose, are they really going to have room for Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Chris Duhon, Larry Hughes, and Thabo Sefolosha? If they take Michael Beasley, are they really going to be able to keep finding time and touches for Drew Gooden, Tyrus Thomas, Joakim Noah, and Andres Nocioni? In both cases, you could answer a solid maybe. But it sure seems like, after some big disappointments, change could be coming to the Windy City.

And check out the comments of Bulls Executive VP of Business Operations Steve Schanwald: "So much can happen between now and the draft. We will look at what we can do to balance out our roster better, so when we do make the selection, our roster is better equipped. ... We need leadership on our team. There's no doubt about that. We also need scoring and a few other things."