New York Knicks fans are starting to sweat as the NBA’s Draft lottery, which will be held Tuesday night (8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN) in Chicago, quickly approaches. They want the No. 1 pick and Duke’s Zion Williamson. The only problem? They have a 14 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick, which has them tied with the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers with the best odds. So it is far from a sure thing. The team is sending Patrick Ewing, the team’s last No. 1 overall pick, to represent the franchise at the lottery in Chicago, hoping the legendary Knicks center can bring some good luck to the team. Because boy could this franchise, which has been really bad for what feels like so long, really use that pick to get Zion. Especially since they could land two big-name free agents his summer. The state of the franchise could be flipped pretty quickly. Here are the draft lottery odds: And here are Knicks fans freaking Monday night and early Tuesday morning before the draft lottery: Everyone is chipping in to help bring Zion to the Knicks on Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/wofVmcVVrF — New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) May 14, 2019 Pat Ewing , our Legend ! We have a center for the next decade with Mitch Rob but we need to add a beast from Duke; Zion. Tonight , God's plan The 1st overall pick with all our prayers ! You are the Knicks Pat & Forever grateful 100 % Belief ! pic.twitter.com/5ImGppplqh — French Knicks Pod (@FrenchKnicksPod) May 14, 2019 Fasting and praying for Zion to come to the Knicks. — Joshua Kissi (@JoshuaKissi) May 14, 2019 Zion to the knicks and if not I’ll shave my beard — what (@babaloovhs) May 14, 2019 Twas the Night Before Knicksmas And all through the Garden Not a whistle was blowing Not even for James Harden Rafter jerseys hung with one spot bare In hopes that Zion would soon be there The Knicks fans were snuggled in beds. With dreams of KD, Kyrie, and Zion dunking on heads. — Stringless Paultron (@Strnglss) May 14, 2019 This time tomorrow Zion Williamson willl pretty much be on the Knicks Or The NBA corporate offices will be on fire and this tweet will be deleted before the authorities can find it/me pic.twitter.com/bjCx782lUB — Lester. (@TheLesterLee) May 14, 2019 Going to bed with prayers for Zion #KNICKS — NewYorkSportsGuy (@mmontrone2121) May 14, 2019 Ping pong ball going under the bed tonight, let tomorrow bring Zion Williamson to our New York Knicks 💙🧡🏀 — Brad ⚾️🇺🇸 (@BradeyLiverio) May 14, 2019 Tomorrow is the day we find out if Zion will be a Knick…. to say I’m nervous is an understatement 🤞🏼 #Zion #NBADraftLottery #Knicks — Nick Martorano (@NickMartorano98) May 14, 2019 Getting antsy waiting for the lottery tomorrow, too many years of misery for this Knicks fan. Dreaming of Zion on Broadway tonight https://t.co/HzuIx8YLPU — Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) May 14, 2019<doc-sep>New York Knicks fans woke up this morning with their hearts pounding. Or at least this one did. At 5:50 a.m. Eastern. The NBA draft lottery day has finally arrived. The Knicks’ have as good a chance as any team at getting the No. 1 pick and, therefore, Zion Williamson, one of the most scintillating combinations of athleticism, size and skill the basketball world has ever seen. I can already see how Knicks fans are dealing with this — with trepidation. And I don’t blame them. Their expectations are low and they should be. Since the Patrick Ewing glory years in the 1990s there’s barely been much to be hopeful about — Linsanity and one good year in Carmelo Anthony’s tenure were exceptions. In the era of the salary cap, the Knicks’ front office made confounding error after error. GMs gave away valuable first rounders in awful trades. They botched lottery picks (remember Jordan Hill?) or missed out on players who could have changed everything (one pick away from Steph Curry in 2009). They signed or dealt for risky veterans (Andrea Bargnani!) or reclamation projects (Eddy Curry!!!!) who didn’t work out and tied up cap space. Yet here we are at the point where that can all change in a matter of months. And it could start Tuesday night. The rational side of my brain keeps trying to plead the same case: The lottery is the one thing the Knicks can’t control. For all the franchise’s problems, the team did exactly what it was supposed to do to get into the best possible position for Williamson. The Knicks lost enough games to be one of the bottom-three teams, which gives them a 14 percent chance at No. 1 (along with the Suns and Cavaliers.) That work, such as it is, has been done. Nothing can change it now. There’s no way a general manager or president spouting weird stuff about the triangle can mess it up, or for a paranoid, kazoo-playing owner to make an awful hire that would somehow change the lottery odds. This is all up to a bunch of randomized ping pong balls to land the right way. For some, perhaps those who believe in fate or who have prayed for this to happen — the New York Post took that route — that’s terrifying. But maybe there’s some comfort in that randomness that we have no control over (unless you believe in frozen envelopes and the like). Unfortunately, my rational side isn’t winning. The tiniest bit of hope has seeped in and I’m trying — and failing — to push it out. The Knicks could really get this pick and then select the Duke product, who would pull on an orange and blue jersey and start a new era in New York. I also can’t stop hearing Stephen A. Smith saying Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving coming to the Knicks is a “foregone conclusion” — and it’s driving me nuts. Don’t give Knicks fans so much hope! There’s a chance it all falls apart. Either the franchise gets a pick outside the top-three (the laughs from NBA Twitter would be deafening) or the Knicks end up trading a top selection, maybe for Anthony Davis, which somehow unravels when The Brow doesn’t re-sign in 2020. Or maybe Durant and Irving decide the Knicks franchise is too toxic and look elsewhere. The Knicks subsequently pour all their cap space into sub-superstar talent and make the playoffs for a few years, only to be trounced by better teams season after season. There’s no chances at the lottery for a while. The mediocrity at Madison Square Garden resumes. Time is a flat circle dot GIF. But maybe — just maybe — Tuesday night gives the Knicks and their fans the break they’ve needed for decades and it’s the start of some good that will erase all the mistakes they’ve endured. All it takes is for a few ping pong balls to fall into the right place.<doc-sep>The tanking is (hopefully) over. Now, will it pay off? The New York Knicks take a 14 percent chance into Tuesday night’s lottery, as they hope to land the No. 1 pick and a chance to draft Duke star Zion Williamson. The Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers also have a 14 percent chance of winning the lottery as the format changed this year to give the top three teams an equal chance to win. The Knicks cannot do any worse than the No. 5 pick. Their odds of getting the No. 2 pick are 13.4 percent, 12.7 percent for No. 3, 11.9 percent for No. 4 and 47.9 percent for the fifth pick. Murray State star point guard Ja Morant and Duke’s RJ Barrett are considered the second- and third-best prospects in the draft by most NBA scouts and draft experts. Here are the full lottery odds (via NBA.com): see also NBA draft lottery: Patrick Ewing joins these team representatives The Knicks hope that having the biggest star at the... New York Knicks – 14.0% Cleveland Cavaliers – 14.0% Phoenix Suns – 14.0% Chicago Bulls – 12.5% Atlanta Hawks – 10.5% Washington Wizards – 9.0% New Orleans Pelicans – 6.0% x – Memphis Grizzlies – 6.0% y – Dallas Mavericks – 6.0% Minnesota Timberwolves – 3.0% Los Angeles Lakers – 2.0% Charlotte Hornets – 1.0% Miami Heat – 1.0% z – Sacramento Kings – 1.0% x – This pick may be conveyed to the Celtics y – This pick may be conveyed to the Hawks z – This pick will be conveyed to the 76ers or to the Celtics via the 76ers<doc-sep>Just when it appeared that Patrick Ewing would finally win the big one for the Knicks, when you could even conjure up an image of his honorary participation in a championship ring ceremony not too far down the road, the lottery gods chortled and said, “Step aside, Big Fella, you had your turn 34 years ago.” Nobody kidded themselves about the Knicks’ statistical chances of landing the No. 1 pick — to be used on Zion Williamson, the would-be generational talent — before Tuesday night’s draft lottery. But what transpired during the stage show in Chicago once the Knicks had reached the final round of four felt like a kick in the groin, a blown lead late in the fourth quarter. The promise of Zion was summarily ejected from Madison Square Garden like a taunting fan in the face of its owner, James L. Dolan. With a 14 percent chance, the Knicks were suddenly the heavy favorite against the competing odds of New Orleans and Memphis at 6 percent and Team LA-Bron, otherwise known as the Lakers, at 2 percent. Finishing third, behind the Pelicans and the Grizzlies, was not a disaster — and one day it may even be considered a blessing. But not this day, a deflating reminder of how long it has been since the Garden, the self-proclaimed World’s Most Famous Arena, actually was the center of the N.B.A. universe.<doc-sep>
As the Knicks stumbled through a 17-65 season, the worst record in the NBA this season and tied for the worst record in franchise history, at least the light at the end of the tunnel was the NBA Draft Lottery. But when Tuesday’s lottery is held at 8:30 p.m. at the Hilton Chicago, the Knicks’ best odds are to land the fifth pick, thanks to a revamped lottery system that tries to dissuade teams from tanking and attempting to secure a slot at the top of the draft. The Knicks have a 14 percent chance of landing the top pick, which almost certainly will be Duke’s Zion Williamson. That’s the same odds owned by the second- and third-worst teams, the Cavaliers and Suns, thanks to the system approved in 2017 by the league’s Board of Governors. This system, which will be implemented for the first time, has been swapped for a system that would have given the worst team a 25 percent chance at the No. 1 pick. The Knicks have a 47.9 percent chance of landing the fifth pick. By virtue of having the worst record, they can’t slip below No. 5. Which pick wll the Knicks get in the NBA Draft Lottery? 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 1st (111) 41% 2nd (23) 8% 3rd (56) 20% 4th (18) 7% 5th (66) 24% Show results The Knicks’ odds for the rest of those five spots are 13.4 percent for the second pick, 12.7 for No. 3 and 11.9 for No. 4. The last time the Knicks were 17-65, they had the second-worst record, but the 2015 lottery dropped them from the No. 2 pick to No. 4, with the 76ers and Lakers jumping over them. Subscribe to Newsday’s sports newsletter Receive stories, photos and videos about your favorite New York teams plus national sports news and events. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. It worked out as Kristaps Porzingis fell into their laps, or at least it did until the relationship between the Knicks and the franchise centerpiece splintered and they traded him to Dallas. That left the Knicks without a star, but it did create enough cap space for them to chase two max-salary stars this summer. Patrick Ewing — the last player to lead the Knicks to regular contention — will represent the franchise on the dais Tuesday. He was selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the Knicks in 1985 after the team won the first lottery, one that still is the subject of nearly as many conspiracy theories as UFO sightings are. Was it a frozen envelope or a bent corner that allowed Ewing to land at Madison Square Garden? The NBA has moved steadily to avoid those sorts of questions. Now, before the cards are turned over on the stage Tuesday night, the actual lottery will be held in a separate room with media members, NBA officials, representatives of the participating teams and the accounting firm of Ernst and Young in attendance. Fourteen carefully tested and weighed Ping-Pong balls numbered 1 through 14 will be placed in a lottery machine. There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls of the 14 are drawn, without regard to their order of selection. Before the lottery, 1,000 of those 1,001 combinations will be assigned to the 14 participating lottery teams. Allan Houston will represent the Knicks in the room where the Ping-Pong balls are drawn. “There’s no such thing as luck,” he said. “You know that.” And that’s hard to argue concerning the Knicks, who have rarely seen anything but hard times since Ewing departed.