Expect the weighing of the lottery odds to come under plenty of scrutiny in the next few days. But the lottery itself can be an unsolvable dilemma. Is weighing the odds more in favor of the near-playoff teams hurting the teams that are legitimately terrible? Is tipping the scale more towards the basement dwellers encouraging teams to throw games? We need John Hollinger or the guys at 82games.com to create some sort of "Tanking Algorithm" or "Laziness Index" to get to the bottom of this.

I'm going to resist the urge to go on a conspiracy theory rant here, but I can't be the only one who's thinking that The Powers That Be stepped in to not only help franchises in financial peril (e.g., Seattle), but also prevent rewarding teams who unofficially announced their intentions to tank.

I feel especially bad for Celtics fans. Between Len Bias, Michael Smith, Rick Pitino, Antoine Walker, Eric Montross, Ron Mercer, Jerome Moiso, and Sebastian Telfair, I couldn't imagine the pain of being emotionally attached to the NBA equivalent of "Gilligan's Island".