Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 1393 of 1503)

With the ninth pick in the draft, the Chicago Bulls took forward Joakim Noah out of Florida. Is it just me or did Noah look like Weird Al Yankovic before he put the Bulls hat on? Anyway, even though he’s not expected to dominate at the next level offensively, Noah has a non-stop motor, will crash the boards and plays hard on every play. Kind of like how Ben Wallace played in Detroit before he stole $60 million from Chicago last year.

Noah was the third Gator selected in the top 10 of the draft, joining Al Horford (No. 3 to Atlanta) and Corey Brewer (No. 7 to Minnesota). I made the same remark in regard to Ohio State in the blog about Greg Oden, but what a year for Florida. A national championship in football, basketball and now three players go in the top 10 of the NBA draft. Can’t get much better than that.

With the second pick in the NBA draft, the Seattle Sonics selected Texas forward Kevin Durant. Even though Greg Oden was selected first overall by the Blazers, many believe Durant has the best chance to win Rookie of the Year honors.

Seattle is also expected to ship Ray Allen to Boston for the rights of Georgetown’s Jeff Green, who the Celtics took with the fifth overall pick. ESPN is reporting the deal is basically done – Green already did an interview commenting how excited he is to play with Durant – but nothing is final as of this point.

With the first overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, the Portland Trailblazers selected OSU center Greg Oden. Expected to be a defensive specialist at first, the thought by many analysts is that Oden will eventually win multiple championships for this franchise, but that’s always the idea when you take a player first overall isn’t it?

First the Buckeyes reached the NCAA National Championship in football, then again in basketball, and now have a player taken first overall in the NBA Draft. Albeit OSU lost in both of those championship games to Florida, but nevertheless, that’s a hell of a year.

ESPN.com has a story on its main page that the Blazers will select OSU center Greg Oden with the first overall pick in tonight’s NBA Draft. Oden’s agent, Mike Conley Sr., is saying different, however.

“We haven’t been told that,” Mike Conley, Sr. said late Wednesday night. “(ESPN) can have their opinion, but the Blazers haven’t told us anything.”

This is crazy talk, because ESPN would never jump the gun on a report right?