"I'm doing great."

"Thanks for selecting me and giving me a chance."

"OK, OK."

"So my family's going to come" [to New Orleans].

"I've got my mother, father, brother, sister and girlfriend."

"Is that enough? Is that too many?"

"All right, thank you."

[Simmons is interrupted by Patrick O'Bryant, who walks over, jokingly takes off Simmons' Hornets hat and switches it with his own Warriors cap. Can you blame O'Bryant? Who wouldn't want to switch off the Warriors to play with Chris Paul?]

"I'm doing good coach, how are you doing?" [Byron Scott now.]

"Thank you, thank you."

"I'm excited you guys picked me."

"OK, all right, take care, thank you."

7. The losses made them rowdy

Knicks fans went all-out on Wednesday night. They may be the only redeeming quality of the team. As soon as ESPN went on air at 7 p.m., they were nuts. "Fire Isiah" signs. "Duck Folan" signs. "Sell the Knicks" signs (and accompanying chants). They outdid themselves by booing commissioner David Stern when he announced that New York was the host of the WNBA All-Star Game. To which he responded, Sternly, "This is a very rowdy crowd." A friend who was watching it on TV phoned me a minute later and said, "Dude, did that just happen? Did they really just boo the WNBA All-Stars? Wow."

Roughly 10 minutes later, when Bargnani took the stage, the Knicks fans started a brief chant of "USA." When "Il Mago," as he's nicknamed, posed for pictures with a basketball, they yelled, "Shoot it!" And then, as soon as the Bulls went on the clock with No. 2 pick -- the one that, if you recall, used to belong to the New Yorkers -- the jeers intensified. "Where's our draft pick?" was the dominant message.

I felt bad, a little, for Temple's Mardy Collins; he was taken with the Knicks' second first-round pick, at 29, and the reaction was ugly. The ESPN cameras cut to fans who just shook their heads, and then to Spike Lee for the money shot -- him sitting, hunched over, with his hand against his face. Miserable. The Knicks managed to use two first-round picks on two players who would have been otherwise selected (by, say, respectable teams) in the second round. Sweet start, Isiah.