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and it’s kevin durant.

we were walking out of hp pavilion in march, having just watched the ucla and kansas sweet 16 games, when tim threw out the question: “oden or durant?”

even then it was a foregone conclusion that the two of them would be exiting the college game and going 1 and 2 in the draft. my immediate reaction was kevin durant. and then i thought about it more, and i came up with… kevin durant. and then the draft happened last night… and i still say kevin durant.

i think that puts me in the minority, but i want to get it down on paper now: kevin durant will be the best player from this draft in 15 years*.

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make no mistake, greg oden is a great talent. he’s going to be a really good nba player. i have no reason to believe that his offensive game won’t catch up with his defensive dominance. but he’s stated that he “likes basketball,” but doesn’t “love” it. if you were comparing oden to any other player, in this draft, you wouldn’t care about that. but sometimes there’s a player who comes along special enough that you just need to put aside the conventional wisdom of “you have to take the center over the forward, because it’s harder to find a good center.”

kevin durant is a 6′10″ SF with otherworldly skills and tremendous athletic ability. when you watch him play it’s almost like he was designed to play this game. there isn’t anything on the court that he doesn’t do well with the exception of defensive footwork, and i have no reason to believe that he won’t improve in that area too. but those physical attributes and stats wouldn’t really be enough to rate him over oden. i think the adjustment comes when you consider his mentality.

kevin durant is, as several gm’s described him, a “predator.” a “stone-cold killer.” you watch him and he just wants to bury other players and teams. he plays with that malicious attitude of greatness, and he does it while playing his ass off. i think that’s what defines Mike from tim thomas. it’s that cutthroat nature that separated hakeem from patrick ewing, and larry bird from so many taller, faster, stronger players. it’s what got everyone so excited when they watched lebron in that game.

you can see it in those players’ eyes and it’s greater than any conventional wisdom about drafting a center over a forward.

when that forward is a 6′10″, 18-year old, scoring machine with a beautiful jumper, who rebounds and handles the ball, you take kevin durant.

*= barring injury