BROOKLYN, NY—Nervously pacing and muttering under their breath after having their draft board completely blown up, the New York Knicks front office was scrambling Thursday after the Pelicans drafted Zion Williamson before they could take him with the third overall pick. “We were so sure that Zion was going to fall to us that we haven’t really scouted or evaluated any of the other players. It’s devastating,” said General Manager Scott Perry, who claimed that nobody in the Knicks front office had heard anything about the Pelicans’ interest in drafting Williamson and that their entire off-season strategy was predicated on adding him to the roster. “Zion was our guy, we were so sure about it, we even have the ‘Williamson’ jersey that we were going to hand to him sitting here in our office. We knew other teams were interested, but all of our expertise and research said he was going to be available. Now we just have to make a wild guess with whoever is left.” Perry added that this was the Knicks’ biggest draft day surprise since they had planned to draft Anthony Davis with the 48th pick in 2012.

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