NEW YORK _ After Lonzo Ball's dream came true, he finally admitted that he felt this coming.
"Ever since my season at UCLA I kind of felt confident," Ball said, in a quiet moment between the constant stream of interviews and photo ops that came with being selected the second overall pick in the draft. " ... I just trusted my game. I knew I was going to be a top pick. When I saw they had second it put a smile on my face.
"I'm glad everything worked out."
After all the predictions, the critiques and the smokescreens, the team selecting second in this year's draft made the obvious choice. They drafted Ball, the best passer in the draft, a player Magic Johnson once said reminded him of himself. Ball is the first UCLA player to be drafted second overall since 1979. He is the first UCLA player to be taken in the Top 4 since Russell Westbrook in 2008.
"When he's on the floor, all four guys out there with him become better instantly," Lakers Coach Luke Walton said. "That's a quality trait that not many people have. The great ones all have it. I hope by the way he plays, everyone else on our team becomes better."
Ball was one of three UCLA freshmen to be drafted. TJ Leaf went 18th to the Indiana Pacers, and Ike Anigbogu, expected to go in the late first round, fell to the 47th pick, also to the Pacers.
In addition to Ball, the Lakers selected forward Kyle Kuzma out of the University of Utah 27th, with the pick they received from the Brooklyn Nets as part of the trade that sent D'Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov to the Nets.
That trade paved the way for Ball to join the team in uncomplicated fashion. Russell was the Lakers' point guard at the start of last season. The Lakers drafted him second overall in 2015.
The Lakers then traded the 28th pick, a pick they'd received from Houston for Lou Williams, to Utah. The Jazz gave the Lakers the 30th pick and the 42nd pick. With the 30th pick, the Lakers took Villanova senior guard Josh Hart. With the 42nd pick, they took Indiana center Thomas Bryant. All three players participated in group workouts with the Lakers during the pre-draft process.
The night, though, belonged to Lonzo Ball.
The Philadelphia 76ers selected University of Washington point guard Markelle Fultz first overall, putting the Lakers on the clock. As soon as the Lakers' five minutes began, Ball changed from the dress shoes he wore into the building into a pair of purple and gold sneakers made by his family's brand.
Then he waited.
With 2/12 minutes left in the Lakers' allotted five minutes, Ball's agent handed him a phone. Seconds later the whole table _ his brothers, his father, his trainer and a family friend _ began grinning. They took in the moment until NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced his name and the crowd at Barclay's Center erupted.
Then the interview gauntlet began. Ball started with his podium interview, where he showed deference and reverence to Magic Johnson.
"He's one of the best to ever do it, and I can't_there's never going to be another Magic Johnson," Ball said. "So I'm trying to be myself, but if I can come halfway short of him, you know it's going to be good."
Next, in a crowded media room across the arena, he conducted interviews for "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" local television stations, national radio shows, websites and video conferences shared in in Australia, Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Chile, France, India, Mexico, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
Not long after, Ball did a television interview in a hallway at Barclays Center, and De'Aaron Fox, the Kentucky point guard selected fifth overall by the Sacramento Kings, pranced by, giddy, and called out to Ball.
"Yeah, Zo!" Fox said. "Yeah, Zo!"
Fox would later pass Ball again, and slap the bill on his Lakers cap, playfully, then declare his hat was the best because it wasn't a hat, but a visor.
Ball sat for the NBA's social media channels, then was presented with a watch, then tried the call back to the facility again, this time with success. Johnson, Walton, Jeanie and Joey Buss all congratulated him. General Manager Rob Pelinka told him, "We like to make dreams come true."
Ball grew up watching the Lakers win championships with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. His outspoken father, LaVar Ball, had insisted for months his son would play for the Lakers. Even right before the draft began, he declared their table a place for positivity, and for believing the Lakers would take his son.
The Ball family remained at their table until just before the Lakers' late-round selections. Then they got up and walked out past a rowdy crowd of draft spectators. They started to boo loudly at LaVar. He grinned and pumped his fists at them. He threw his purple and gold Big Baller Brand hat into the crowd as they all left the floor to meet Lonzo.
"I don't know what it is but I'm pretty sure it's going to be crazy," Lonzo said. "I'll tell you that."
The next day, he went home to southern California. And he'll stay there.
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