As a former N.B.A. executive, Stu Jackson is familiar with the mood at the annual draft lottery. He has sat on that dais. He has felt the bright lights. Jackson, now an analyst for NBA TV, described it as “the party no one ever wants to go to.”
Generally attended by teams that failed to qualify for the playoffs, the lottery is suffuse with even more losing. Only one team, after all, walks away with the top pick.
But for the Knicks, Tuesday night’s draft lottery at the New York Hilton has, for months, been a source of rare optimism — a preliminary step for them as they begin to reconfigure their roster, or at least that is the hope.