It is entirely possible that Phil Jackson — or rather Steve Mills — worked the phones into the dying seconds of the Knicks’ five-minute allotment after the third pick of the N.B.A. draft Thursday night, shooting for a deal that would have brought them a veteran and an escape hatch from what seemed like the dreaded No. 4 slot.
Or, to put it another way, the slot the Knicks inadvertently set themselves up for by winning two insanely worthless games as their worst season in history was ending, ceding the league’s worst record to the Minnesota Timberwolves.