While the eyes of Texas are locked on Dallas this weekend, the NBA is firing up its pre-season slate with a trio of games in Europe.

T.J. Ford and the Toronto Raptors open play against the new-look Boston Celtics in Rome on Saturday night. Tip-off is 1:30 PM Central, and will offer fans their first glimpse of the C’s with big man Kevin Garnett. Fans in the States who want to catch a little roundball instead of pigskin can tune in on NBA TV.

The Raps follow their NBA pre-season opener with an international clash against Lottomatica Roma on Sunday. The host Italian team includes former Villanova guard Allan Ray, who spent some time with the Austin Toros of the NBDL. While this match-up won’t be televised in the US, fans can check stats on NBA.com when the contest tips at 11:30 AM Central.

On July 27th, the members of the 2007 NBA draft class took part in an eight-and-a-half hour photo shoot donning their new uniforms. Photog Fernando Medina snapped shots of the players at the Knicks’ practice facility in Tarrytown, NY, while John Schuhmann live-blogged the event for NBA.com’s Rookie Report.

The full photo gallery (47 shots in all) can be found on NBA.com, while the ones of former Horn Kevin Durant are thumbnailed below. Click on any one to open the gallery in LightBox.

The NBA Draft Lottery went down last night, and with it came the most shocking of outcomes. Memphis and Boston, the two worst teams in the league, were both completely shut out in the drawing. With the top three slots filled by better teams, the Grizz and Celtics slid down the board to fourth and fifth.

The winners in this shocking turn of events were the young Portland Trail Blazers and the possibly soon-to-be-nomadic Seattle SuperSonics. Barring any trades in the next month, that means that Oden and Durant will both be heading to the rainy Pacific northwest, playing games when half of the country will be asleep. Awesome.

As a Celtics fan, I can’t even begin to explain how irritated I am over all of this. After last year’s debacle of trading away Brandon Roy — who would become Rookie of the Year — for Sebastian Freakin Telfair, I didn’t think it could be worse. I was very wrong. In Danny Ainge’s defense, this time he wasn’t the one screwing the pooch. But he did give Doc Rivers a contract extension….

I honestly just feel bad for KD. The Celtics will continue to suck, and I’m used to it. They have not been dominantly good since I was in preschool. But KD had a chance to keep his star shining brightly in an east coast market, and instead will be playing in (relative) obscurity in cities that do anything but scream “rabid fan base.”

For now, there’s a ton of workouts and evaluation for all the prospects not named Durant or Oden. But for Texas’ own Basketball Jesus, I really hope a trade goes down between now and June 28th.

It’s not quite a basketball game, but this evening the Longhorns will get together one more time for the annual basketball banquet. And while it probably won’t match the excitement of a double-overtime win over A&M, it’s our last chance to relive the season and celebrate the accomplishments of this young team. I’ll be heading over there shortly, and will have a report later tonight or sometime tomorrow.

As for everything happening with the NCAA coaching carousel and the NBA stretch run, I will attempt to touch on all of them beginning tomorrow. And with a couple of former Longhorns having punched their playoff tickets, we’ll have a lot to talk about for the next couple of months.

Yesterday

Royal Ivey did not play in the Hawks’ 105-97 loss to the Bulls. Perhaps he will show up at tonight’s NCAA title game in the pimp orange blazer he wore to last year’s regionals.

Only one thing could help Doc Rivers and the Celtics get a win over the Cavs — LeBron James didn’t play. Daniel Gibson did, though, and earned a steal, assist, and rebound in his 18 minutes on the court. D-Gib was 0-for-2 from the field.

The Raptors continued their winning ways, thumping the visiting Charlotte Bobcats, 107-94. T.J. Ford scored 11 and earned eight assists in the victory. T.J. also added four boards and two steals.

Maurice Evans finally made it back to the court for the L.A. Lakers, who destroyed the Kings by a 126-103 count. Mo earned Horn of the Night honors from Longhorn Road Trip, scoring 21 points — including an ally-oop worthy of SportsCenter’s “Top Plays.”

Tonight

The League takes a day off while the college kids play their championship game in the Georgia Dome. Interesting how they don’t do that for the Women’s Final Four. Hmmmmm.

Remember the old cartoons where the dog would see a juicy steak in a thought bubble and start drooling? Memphis, Boston, and Milwaukee will be a lot like that tonight. Except Danny Ainge will look more like an incompetent GM than a drooling dog.

A lot of draft-ready talent will be on the court in Atlanta — now it’s just a question of whose lottery ball comes out first.