| 25 February 2010
In a season where Kevin Durant is making a run at the NBA scoring title, Portland always seems to come up in the conversation.
Better get used to it. The man is going to be here awhile.
For every time the Oklahoma City Thunder’s superstar climbs another rung in this league, writers and fans around the league constantly remind everyone how the Blazers passed on a kid who has already positioned himself as one of thee marquee players in the NBA for years to come.
This goes further than the Greg Oden over Durant debate.
It’s fueled talk that Portland has another Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan jinx on their hands, especially with Durant recently rattling off 29 consecutive games with 25 points or more.
San Antonio stopped that streak on Wednesday night when Durant went for 21 points.
It didn’t stop the talk.
“The Los Angeles Clippers have had the worst karma of any NBA team hands down, writes Matt Ledesma for the Times Record News today.
“But to me, the Portland Trail Blazers are giving the Clips a run for their money when it comes to teams perpetually caught in a running gag.”
We all know the draft logic here: Portland passed on Jordan because they had Clyde Drexler. They chose Oden because – well, it’s hard to pass on a center marked with unbounded potential like that coming out of Ohio State.
But come on. We are talking about the Clippers here. And while the names Durant, Jordan, Bowie and Oden will forever be linked in time, the Clippers aren’t even close to relinquishing their “worst karma” crown.
In 1985, they grabbed Benoit Benjamin second overall when they could have had Karl Malone (13th), Joe Dumars (18) or Terry Porter (24). The Clippers could have had Scottie Pippen (5) or Reggie Miller (11) with the 4th overall selection, but they chose Reggie Williams out of Georgetown instead.
Back in 1997, they went with Lorenzen Wright with the 7th pick.
Some kid named Kobe Bryant went six spots later at 13.
And Steve Nash (15).
Should we even start on Michael Olowokandi?
And what will really come of Blake Griffin. In all honestly, we can ask the same of Oden.
The gist of article isn’t lost in translation here. Not at all.
But it’s hard to digest with the above draft track record of the Clippers, and knowing the history of Portland’s overall success towards and within the postseason. The Los Angeles Clippers wouldn’t know anything about that.
Now that’s some bad luck that just keeps biting.
photo: espn.com
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