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New Oklahoma Citizen: Kevin Durant or Greg Oden?
Published: 5/23/2007 9:33 AM
Last Modified: 5/23/2007 9:33 AM

The NBA Draft lottery was held Tuesday night and the reason that we should be interested is because Greg Oden or Kevin Durant could be paying state income taxes here in a couple of years.
Oden, a one-year Ohio State wonder who looks older than Phyllis Diller, and Durant, the ex-fab freshman from Texas, are considered the top two players in the 2007 draft.
Portland won the draft lottery for the first pick and Seattle will pick second. And that means Oden or Durant could be calling Oklahoma home in the near future.
If the Seattle Sonics don't get a new arena, it has been widely speculated that owner Clay Bennett will take the team to Oklahoma City. The Ford Center needs a new tenant now that the Hornets have departed.
Chris Paul will be a hard act to follow. But, in Oden or Durant, Oklahoma could have a new young superstar as a resident.
Which one of them do you want the Sonics to pick?
Oden is a center and true centers are harder to find than a Honus Wagner rookie card.
Durant seems to be a can't-miss prospect and was a national player of the year last season. Imagine how good he will be once his body catches up with his game.
My choice? Durant. NBA teams often out-think themselves in regard to bigger is better, or don't you remember Sam Bowie being picked ahead of Michael Jordan? The Clippers valued a center so badly in 1998 that they picked Michael Olowokandi first -- eight spots ahead of Dirk Nowitzki and nine spots ahead of Paul Pierce.
Oden may wind up being a great NBA center. But it would be a mistake to take anyone but Durant with the first pick.



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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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