The Journal Times Online - Racine, Wisconsin

GERY WOELFEL

It's amazing how things sometimes work out in pro sports.

Remember when the Green Bay Packers incredibly saw quarterback Aaron Rodgers do a free fall on draft day when all the talk before the draft was how Rodgers would likely be one of the first players chosen?

The Milwaukee Bucks now seem to have been the beneficiaries of Lady Luck as well.

For starters, in the weeks leading up to the NBA trading deadline last February, the Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies had trade discussions. The Bucks coveted Mike Conley, a quality young point guard.

If the Bucks had been able to consummate that trade, Conley  undoubtedly would have been their point guard of the future and there wouldn't have been any need for them to draft Jennings.

The Bucks also explored trading the 10th overall pick, the one they used to select Jennings, who last week scored a franchise rookie record 55 points against the Golden State Warriors.

The Bucks had talked to several teams, including the Washington Wizards. At the time, the Wizards had the fifth overall pick but were quite receptive to trading it.

The Bucks brass was hoping to secure Washington's pick and possibly draft sharp-shooting guard Stephen Curry. Instead, the Wizards dealt the pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a multi-player deal.

Before the draft, the Bucks also chatted with the Charlotte Bobcats. At least, that's what Terrence Williams told me Wednesday night.

Williams was the 11th overall selection,taken by New Jersey -- just one pick after the Bucks took Jennings.

According to Williams, he was told there was a strong chance he would be taken by the Bucks with the 10th pick and then traded to the Charlotte Bobcats.

Williams said he doesn't know why the trade didn't materialize and he didn't know who the Bucks would have gotten in return.

And, finally, there was yet another scenario in which Jennings almost didn't wind up being a Buck. Before the draft, he worked out with the Golden State Warriors.

According to some people who witnessed the workout, which also included highly-touted point guard Jonny Flynn, Jennings was sensational.

Based on conversations with Warriors officials, the Jennings' camp was led to believe Golden State was going to draft Jennings with the seventh overall pick.

But that didn't occur, I'm told, because Minnesota, which had the fifth and sixth picks, surprised the Warriors and most NBA officials by taking two true point guards: Ricky Rubio and Flynn.

Suddenly, Curry, who put on a stunning shooting display at the pre-draft camp in Chicago a few weeks earlier, was available for the Warriors, who quickly drafted him instead of Jennings.

With neither New York and Toronto -- the teams drafting immediately after the Warriors -- interested in drafting a point guard, Jennings fell to the Bucks.