![\"Oklahoma](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/act_kevin_durant.jpg\" "\\"Oklahoma")
When the 1984 NBA Draft is brought up among basketball lovers, the discussion immediately turns to Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan.<\/p>\nWhen the 1984 NBA Draft is brought up among basketball lovers, the discussion immediately turns to Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n
With the second pick in that infamous draft, the Portland Trail Blazers chose Bowie, a 7-footer from the University of Kentucky, over the swingman from North Carolina. Portland\u2019s decision impacted the NBA in a profound way as Jordan became a global phenomenon and dominated the league during his 15-year career.<\/p>\n
Thirteen years later, the Trail Blazers were put in an eerily similar situation. The 2007 NBA Draft showcased two elite talents: Greg Oden and Kevin Durant.<\/p>\n
Oden, a 7-footer from The Ohio State University, displayed an array of talent during his only season as a Buckeye. Durant, a tall and lanky swingman from the University of Texas, was an offensive juggernaut in his only year with the Longhorns.<\/p>\n
Again, the Trail Blazers owned the No. 1 overall pick and blew it. Portland chose the lumbering Oden, while the Oklahoma City Thunder was given a gift from the basketball Gods.<\/p>\n
Though the decision was made less than three years ago, Durant is already causing Portland officials to lose a lot of sleep.<\/p>\n
At 6-foot-9, 230 pounds, Durant is leading the NBA in scoring with a 29.7 average, as of Feb. 3. Oden, who has played in 82 games in 3 years, is sidelined for the season with a fractured left patella tendon. Oden has averaged 9.4 points and 7.3 rebounds during his injury-plagued career.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unfortuate that Oden has been hampered by injuries because it looked as if the big man was finally getting comfortable on the court before his knee injury. The sting wouldn\u2019t be as bad if Durant wasn\u2019t so good.<\/p>\n
Portland General Manager Kevin Pritchard has repeatedly said he would choose Oden over Durant if given the choice again. If that is the case, Pritchard needs to be fired as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
The decision is obvious to any NBA fan. It\u2019s easy to look back and criticize, but arrogance needs to be pushed aside. Durant\u2019s first three seasons are just a preview of what\u2019s to come. I\u2019m not assigning him as the next Jordan, but it looks as though he\u2019s taking similar steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the 1984 NBA Draft is brought up among basketball lovers, the discussion immediately turns to Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan. With the second pick in that infamous draft, the Portland Trail Blazers chose Bowie, a 7-footer from the University of Kentucky, over the swingman from North Carolina. Portland\u2019s decision impacted the NBA in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[967,968,1272,966,200,969,965,970,766,971],"class_list":["post-4090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-durant","tag-greg","tag-joseph-stueve","tag-kevin","tag-nba","tag-oden","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-portland","tag-thunder","tag-trail-blazers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-13Y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4090"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4171,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090\/revisions\/4171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}