Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant was a top prospect entering the 2007 NBA Draft. Recently, he looked back on his pre-draft workout with the Portland Trail Blazers, who had the first pick that year.
As reported by Spencer Davies of Basketball Insiders, Durant said of his workout with the Blazers:
To recall, the Blazers opted to select Greg Oden for the top pick instead of him. Durant was selected next by the Seattle SuperSonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder). We can only imagine what would've happened if Durant landed in Portland.
In fact, Durant joked about not being picked first in 2007. When LeBron James picked him first for his All-Star team this year, Durant said, per NBA on TNT:
“Well, finally someone picked me number one.”
The Blazers responded:
Did the Blazers regret their selection? Perhaps so. Oden suffered a series of injuries which ultimately put his NBA career to a grinding halt. Durant, meanwhile, is on his way to another title.
James himself, too, weighed in on the Blazers passing on Durant. As reported by Monte Poole of NBC Bay Area, James said that Durant was built for greatness from the very beginning:
“There's nothing that Kevin Durant could show me at 23 that would make me, like, ‘Oh, years from now . . . ,' ” James said. “No, Kevin Durant was great at 23. As you get older and older, your game gets more and more seasoned. But everyone knew that. That's Kevin Durant.
“So it's not like you would think that he would fizzle out. You knew he was built for greatness from the time that he was drafted. I mean, everybody knew that besides Portland, I guess. Sorry, Portland. Sorry.”