How Far Did Larry Harris Toss His Lucky NBA Draft Rock, Anyway?

There's a dumpster somewhere in the Bradley Center, full of the Bucks' hopes and dreams.

It's probably full of the mock-ups of newspaper ads touting Milwaukee's re-emergence as an NBA power...brimming with discarded t-v and radio scripts hailing the fact that the Bucks landed the number one choice in the upcoming draft.

Then there are the ticket office phones...the ones that literally would've melted right on the desktop from the sheer volume of calls coming in from anxious fans wanting season packages, based on the hope that Greg Oden or Kevin Durant would be wearing green and red this fall.

Last night's NBA Lottery show--which amounts to watching a man in a suit open mail, as per one Internet description I read--gives Milwaukee one more reason to feel ambivalent about Secaucus, New Jersey.

It could've changed EVERYTHING: the Bucks' fortunes on the floor, it's prospects in the NBA, it's fate in the community.

General Manager Larry Harris did a fine job this morning when he joined us on Newsradio 620 WTMJ, touting the fact that Milwaukee will still get a fine athlete when the Bucks go sixth in the first round. That's not blowing smoke--it's a deep draft, but the glam is at one and two. Those are the guys who'd make a worst-to-first scenario very, very possible. They would've put the Bucks back on the local map. The finest GPS couldn't find Milwaukee on that chart after January, when injuries devastated the team.

It's not that fans don't like the Bucks. It's worse.

They feel...nothing.

Can that be turned around with a number six pick?

Doubtful.

A number one or two in the draft would've confirmed relevance upon the Bucks.

Now, it's going to have to get it the old fashioned way--they'll have to earn it.