Ok, this isn't really some deep, overly informative, or super complex thread, just something that's been in the back of my mind for a while. After Steve Francis at the lottery resulted in the Rockets getting the #1, I remember some journalist somewhere else spouting sour milk about Francis, who was somewhat infamous for his relationship to the draft, being the Rockets lottery representitive. While it didn't really concern me that much, the irony was not totaly lost on me. Now this whole deal comes up with potential 'secret deals' for Yao to play only for the Bulls, etc, and I can't help but feel like we're balancing out the luck we had in getting Steve. Really, if those who control Yao's actions say 'we don't want him to play for Houston' is it really any different, morally, from Steve's public and private statements about not wanting to play in Vancouver just because the reasoning is different? Wouldn't we be in the same position as Vancouver, in that we'd still get a bunch of talent for trading the pick, yet not get who we really wanted? I understand that looking closely, there is a differnce between Steve's desires, Yao being subject to the desires of some power mad official, but ignore that. Look at the fortunes of Steve and Yao Ming as perhaps some sort of natural force, or something. I'm certanly not saying that Steve is a bad guy, or denegrating him for his desires. He just leveraged what little control he had in an honest and straightforward fashion to gain control of his destiny. Unfortunatly, this determinism ended up screwing the Grizzly's plan. I'm sure Steve didn't have screwing the Griz as his primary concern. He just did what was best for himself and unfortunately it hurt Vancouver. My only point is that for every time you luck out when someone else gets gets incidentally screwed, is there not a bit of balance in eventually being on the other side? I'm not saying that I'm enjoying what's going on, or that I am stumping for someone else to be drafted, but I think that if the worst occurs, I won't loose my temper, and I won't spend the next 10 years hung up on what 'could have been', even if Yao Ming becomes the greatest center of all time. I think I'll just accept that sometimes you get screwed, and sometimes you do the screwing and it'll probably all balance out in the end.
