Today's the day.

Today is the day the Sacramento Kings worked so hard to get to this year in the face of stiff competition. Today is the day for which the team collectively clanked baskets and missed passes to the tune of a full 82-game season. Today is the reason Eric Musselman put Kenny Thomas in the game for 62 contests. Today is the reason the Kings forced a winless record in overtime for the 2006-07 campaign, and worked their butts off to be outhustled in the third quarter by 10 points in dozens of contests.

For today is the NBA Draft lottery day. Today the Kings' hopes rest on a series of illogical number combinations to direct the franchise toward greatness, or toward continued mediocrity. While a set of ping pong balls won't make three-point shots, won't pass out of the double team and certainly won't teach grown NBA veterans how to treat their dogs, their wife or their teammates, these odd white obelisks offer hope after months of frustration.

At 5:30 PDT, before game 2 of the Jazz/Spurs series, the top three picks in the June 28 draft will be selected. Your Sacramento Kings, as you should have memorized by now, have a 1.8% chance of obtaining the #1 pick, a 2.1% chance of the #2 pick, and a 2.5% chance of snagging the #3 pick.

Unfortunately for us, we can't win all three spots. Some bureaucrat decided if we take the #1 or #2 position, we don't get to win again. Bastards. We could certainly use the help of say… Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and Yi Jianlian or Joakim Noah. I'm sure we'd find some salary cap room and wouldn't mind dropping a Potapenko here or there to clear the bench.

The NBA Draft Lottery will be on ESPN tonight, so be sure to check in and root on the Kings. And if we get the #10 spot, try not to hurt yourselves, your family, your pets, or your furniture. Please.