Good thing the Hawks didn't have the #1 pick in '07

[NineOhTheRino]

Check out this audio of BK before the '07 draft. Start listening around the 11:50 min mark and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

http://www.nba.com/media/hawks/Knight_Presser_052307.mp3

Download

Edited February 10, 2011 by NineOhTheRino

[HawkFoLife]

Oden of course but who knows what direction his career would have taken somewhere else. Like they say different paths and choices..different varying results.

[NineOhTheRino]

Oden of course but who knows what direction his career would have taken somewhere else. Like they say different paths and choices..different varying results.

BK's name is already mud in this town but imagine if he was known as the GM that passed on Durant, and CP3 for a broken down Oden and Marvin Williams. Ouch!

Edited February 10, 2011 by NineOhTheRino

[Wretch]

It is MIND NUMBING listening to BK give vague and standard answers..................................................................

...always HATED that about him. Gah

[MaceCase]

Can you really say that Oden would of been injury prone here when you notice that nearly every Blazer has undergone a season or career changing injury? Something is just up with that franchise's karma. They probably would of robbed AC Green and Karl Malone of their iron man records had they ever had the unfortunate honor of playing in Portland.

[niremetal]

Can you really say that Oden would of been injury prone here when you notice that nearly every Blazer has undergone a season or career changing injury? Something is just up with that franchise's karma. They probably would of robbed AC Green and Karl Malone of their iron man records had they ever had the unfortunate honor of playing in Portland.

Have you ever read Breaks of the Game? It should be required reading for any basketball fan, IMHO. The Blazers curse seemed to start the day after they hoisted the O'Brien trophy in '77.

I really, truly do not think there is a single GM in the league who wouldn't have taken Oden #1 in '07. Even the Bucks' GM said they'd take Oden despite the fact that they had used a #1 on Bogut just 2 years before. Hindsight is 20/20, but no one had any clue that Oden would have these kind of consistent knee injuries at the time he was drafted. He was being compared to Bill Russell, David Robinson, and Shaq.

I had the Blazers penciled in to win a title by 2011 after the Oden pick. My Portland-native girlfriend bought an Oden jersey and commemorative ping pong ball as soon as the pick was announced. The only bright side for her is that Oden is still just 23, and Ilgauskas is proof that early injuries are not necessarily a career death sentence. But it's almost impossible to imagine that he'll ever reach the absurd potential the was projected for him.

Edited February 10, 2011 by niremetal

[AHF]

I really, truly do not think there is a single GM in the league who wouldn't have taken Oden #1 in '07. Even the Bucks' GM said they'd take Oden despite the fact that they had used a #1 on Bogut just 2 years before. Hindsight is 20/20, but no one had any clue that Oden would have these kind of consistent knee injuries at the time he was drafted. He was being compared to Bill Russell, David Robinson, and Shaq.

Agreed. Oden was the "can't-miss" big man...the next David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Shaq, Patrick Ewing, etc. type of player. Nobody passes on the chance for a "true" franchise big man.

[Atlantaholic]

90% of GM's would have taken Oden. And with our humongous need at the Center position obviously we would have drafted the guy... and well, as has been mentioned in this thread, who knows? maybe both the fate of the Hawks and of Oden would have fared for the better under the different circumstances.