CHICAGO – As Tuesday’s NBA Draft Lottery was inching closer and closer to the Dallas Mavericks’ name being called, Michael Finley looked extremely stoic as he sat on the dais before a packed house at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel.
Then, it all happened in a flash.
NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said: “The fifth pick of the NBA Draft Lottery goes to. . .the Dallas Mavericks.”
Finley’s immediate and blunt response?
“I really wanted to get up and leave at that point, or jump up and say, ‘I demand a recount,’ ” said Finley, who is the Mavs’ vice-president of basketball operations.