Escape from New York

Well. This must have bummed out all those Major Markets Matter folks.

"This," of course, being the NBA draft lottery, aka the Who Gets Zion Williamson sweepstakes, won last night by ... the New Orleans Pelicans. Who at once not only get the top pick in the draft (i.e., the Zion Pick), but a viable argument to retain current superstar Anthony Davis, whom the Pelicans have unsuccessfully been trying to offload for several months now.

I mean, Zion and AD? That's something you can build around without resorting to a wholesale teardown.

Also, barring a trade, it rescues Zion from the clutches of the Knicks, official gulag of the NBA.

Look. Everyone talks all the time about how important it is to a major sport to have a franchise in New York that doesn't burst into flames every time you look at it. And, yes, the Knicks have the Garden, and this storied history, and blah-blah-blah, yadda-yadda-yadda.

And yet ...

And yet, they've been the next thing to a vacant lot ever since Crazy Jimmy Dolan  bought them. And the NBA is somehow more ragingly popular than perhaps it's ever been.

And why is that?

Because stars sell your product, and it doesn't matter where they sell it from. A Zion Williamson landing with the Knicks would have been great, but it's not necessary. Steph, Klay and KD in the Bay Area, James Harden in Houston, Kawhi in Toronto and Giannis in Milwaukee seem to be doing just fine keeping their league front-and-center in the public consciousness -- with, of course, a big assist from ESPN, which relentlessly flogs the NBA at every opportunity.

So Zion in New Orleans will be just valuable as Zion in New York, with the added benefit of Zion not being in New York. I mean ... if the Knicks had won the lottery, and Zion had wound up with them, is there anyone who seriously believes Crazy Jimmy and the boys wouldn't find some way to screw it up? Is there anyone who seriously believes he wouldn't be better off in New Orleans for that very reason?

Zion in New York?

If you're an NBA fan, you're praying hard right now.

No, not that Crazy Jimmy finds some way to trade into the top pick.

That he doesn't.