Oden vs Durant

I guess it's good for the NBA that this "battle" has captured the attention of the sports world. Personally, I'm more concerned about who the Pistons will take at 15 and 27, but we'll get to that in a minute.

I would take Greg Oden over Kevin Durant 100 times out of 100. Oden seems to be Hakeem 23 years later. He'll never be a great scorer, but he will average 12 boards a game for 10 years and play great defense. No question there. Durant, on the other hand, seems to be a glorified T.J. Ford. Which is OK, i guess, if you're into that sort of thing. Greg Oden also seems to be funny and smart. The NBA could use a little dose of that sometimes by someone not named Tim Duncan or Shaquille O'Neal.

With that out of the way, I heartily endorse the selection of Nick Young at 15 and Aaron Afflalo at 27. NBAdraft.net has them exiting the building tonight with neither player. I am not a fan of that. I've followed Nick Young since he almost came to St Joe's in 2004 and he has developed nicely since then. He's the type of quick, long, lean player the Pistons like and utilize well. So is Afflalo. They got their inside guys with Maxiell and that guy from Senegal. Now it's time to speed up the game with athletes that can emulate the conditioning of Tayshaun and Rip.

7:30 Eastern, ESPN. I'll be watching the post-coverage on NBATV also. But not til DC United try to get back on track. That's on ESPN 2.

Meanwhile, let's give some props to Kenny Rogers. Dude is back.