GREENBURGH, N.Y. — On the afternoon of May 19, Phil Jackson, the president of the Knicks, met with Steve Mills, his general manager, at the team’s practice facility here. Mills had a couple of hours before he was expected to report to a Midtown Manhattan hotel, where he would represent the team at the N.B.A.’s annual draft lottery.
As they discussed their usual daily business — everything from the playoffs to potential prospects in the draft — Jackson kept folding a piece of paper until it formed a neat, tiny square. He finally presented it to Mills, who opened it to reveal a series of numbers, which Mills presumed were the team’s odds for landing various picks in the lottery.