It’ll be 10 years ago next month the Toronto Raptors got their first and only crack at picking first overall at the NBA draft.
Andrea Bargnani was his name. Passionless cheque-cashing was his game.
So at least a couple of the results of Tuesday’s NBA draft lottery felt like overdue servings of sporting-world justice. In one, the Raptors landed the ninth overall pick in the June 23 draft, this as part of the deferred proceeds of a deft trade by general manager Masai Ujiri that shipped Bargnani to New York back in 2013. In the other, Bryan Colangelo, the former Toronto president and GM who selected Bargnani in 2006 and absorbed no end of grief for his trouble, was gifted the opportunity of another shot at the No.