"The man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all. Does it seem colder in your summer time and hotter in your fall?"
Lyric from: On and On
from the album Baduizm
Written By: Erykah
Badu and Jaborn Jamal
Performed By: Erykah
Badu
 | |
| Photo of Greg Oden courtesy of standingosports.com |
Greg Oden may get a ring before
Kevin Durant does.
How does that make you feel?
It's almost painful to consider, right?
Both players entered the league
via the same draft class, the first and second picks respectively. One player
having done so on the heels of an NCAA championship and felt like an NBA sure
thing while the other seemed like a happy, likable kid who was talented enough
to earn our votes of confidence on the road to his NBA future.
The former, that NBA sure thing, couldn’t
even make his NBA debut until a full season after he was drafted because of
injury and to say that he has played sparingly since would be putting it
generously. As for the latter, his likability was on full display during his recent
MVP acceptance speech, an honor that highlights just how talented Durant has
been. This season he was otherworldly but, he will be watching from home now.
Oden, though, is still in the hunt
with a team that is seeking the 3rd in a repeat of championships that began at
Durant's expense in 2012. Oden, however, wasn't there for the first. And
neither was Ray Allen.
Allen had one foot out the door in
Boston then, having fallen out of love with the team that would not forsake all
others, namely the younger Avery Bradley whose defensive gifts were deemed more
appealing than an aging Ray Ray and his offensive steadiness. The "Allen
comes off the bench" move single-handedly broke up the Celtics' happy home
with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce seeking comfort in Brooklyn and Doc Rivers
hoping to find that loving, coaching feeling in LA with the Clippers.
All three men and their teams
would go on to have prominent roles in the run up to this Oden-Durant
dichotomy, however, with neither the Nets nor the Clippers living up to their pre-season
hype of being legit challengers to the throne.
In fact, while we're pouring out a
little to the dearly departed of this year's playoff run we should take a
moment to honor Oden and Durant's fallen homies from the 2007 draft class-a
cast of characters ranging from bit players to stars of their teams' hardwood shows. The
list includes Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Jared Dudley, Glen Davis, Marc Gasol and
Mike Conley, Jr. Conley Jr. having played Robin to Oden's Batman in route to
their 2007 shining moment before becoming half of the tandem with Gasol in
Memphis that made it to the Western Conference Finals last year, again at
Durant's expense.
This year, however, the Spurs
levied OKC's cost, led by their big three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu
Ginobli with some timely help from a supportive bunch off the bench that includes a couple more of those 2007 boys-Marco
Belinelli and Tiago Splitter. They'll all chip in to San Antonio's collective
effort of stopping Miami's 3-peat in its tracks. They'll also be looking to
avenge last year's shortfall, when they couldn't keep Miami from winning their
2nd straight title. If they're successful, the feat will earn Belinelli and
Splitter a ring before Durant as well.
No pity parties allowed here
though. One need only look at the remaining list of names from that 2007 draft
to know that an NBA career is not always promised, not even for the 60 most
talented amateur players in any given year. And for the guys who do find
success, the road is not always paved with gold. Sometimes a former number one
pick has to fall donkey-backward into a championship ring.
And sometimes an MVP is just an
MVP...until he's an MVP and an NBA champion.
LeBron James knows a thing about
that. This year he may just have to settle for the latter.
Who knows, maybe it will come down
to another three-pointer from old Ray Ray. Once discarded from Seattle to make room for
Durant and later relegated to the bench in a preference for defense over
offense and now maybe thrice an NBA champion because sometimes a guy has to move
around to see his legend be born.
And sometimes a former number one
pick can win his 5th ring in his 17th season with the team who showed him love
right from the start. No matter how these Finals end, Tim Duncan's legendary status will be a forgone conclusion.
Let the NBA Finals begin.
