New Orleans Pelicans Twitter: the basketball world responds to the NBA Draft Lottery

Faux-events like the NBA Draft Lottery and websites like Twitter.com are matches made in heaven. In particular, the portion of NBA fans who have Twitter accounts tend to lose themselves anytime an event like this occurs. With the New Orleans Pelicans’ six spot for tonight’s lottery a mere side-note to the abundance of other NBA stories being played out tonight, the tweets provided an endless flow of entertainment for the duration of the night.

The excitement began about an hour before the airing of the lottery, ESPN.com’s Zach Lowe got things started with a nice #humblebrag concerning his place among the media’s elite, having earned a spot in The Room:

Next, the NBA’s official accounts began to flood our timelines with pictures that the expected lottery picks are forced to take a month before they take another round of pictures before the actual draft:

Brandon Ingram sure is excited for his chance to play against the “best of the best from the entire world”, as Karl-Anthony Towns called the NBA’s players, earning a million more fans by praising his deceased coach and humbling himself within a league full of world-class athletes.

As far as the New Orleans Pelicans are concerned, the pre-draft hype didn’t begin until those pictures got to the late-lottery candidates, where the Pels will be drafting, having “won” the sixth spot in the draft tonight:

Among media members, no one, except those in the private room, seemed to have a better seat than DraftExpress/The Vertical’s Jonathan Givony. What a beautiful night:

The “real” media members (BAH!) are allowed to have fun and chime in, but what truly makes NBA fandom great is the large-and-growing cavalcade of bloggers. Their “insight” turns these night from giggly to gargantuan. Here are few of the best:

Of course, there indeed was a basketball game last night- game one of the Eastern Conference Finals, which the Cleveland Cavaliers won handily. The Raptors, having a hat in both the race to the title and the race to the number one pick, had to send a representative to the lottery like every other team. Masai Ujiri, refraining from vulgarities about #Beliveland in favor of good old-fashioned Handling It Like a Man, stood at the dais for the 6, who ended up with the ninth pick from Denver.

As the event came to a close, Twitter erupted with ferocious quakes of Process-trusting; the Sixers have finally won a lottery. In a turn of events that has become oddly unifying, the team lost its GM this year behind a series of bone-headed behind-the-scenes moves that placed Colangelo father and son in charge. They have been blessed with a franchise-changing moment, finally having the choice of anyone on their board. Twitter sang praise:

Even yours truly, too poor and far away to make the trip to Philadelphia for the Rights to Ricky Sanchez Podcast/Liberty Ballers blog Lottery Party, represented Hinkiedom from Phoenix:

And the Los Angeles Lakers stayed in the top three, kept their pick, and vindicated the Phoenix Suns’ trade for Brandon Knight in one fell swoop!

In the end, the New Orleans Pelicans finished in sixth place, as the draft order will mirror both the lottery odds and standings this year. June will realize the potential of many young athletes, change several NBA franchises, and may set the stage for any number of new eras across the league. This year, the worst team has the best pick. June 23rd can’t come quickly enough.

Next: The Pelicans land the sixth pick in the draft

The Philadelphia 76ers are on the clock.