Kevin Durant Disagrees with Greg Oden’s ‘Biggest Bust in NBA History’ Comments
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Greg Oden and Kevin Durant were the first two players selected in the 2007 NBA Draft—the Trail Blazers took Oden with the first overall pick, while the SuperSonics took Durant second—so their names and legacies will be linked forever. Oden battled through a series of injuries throughout his disappointing NBA career, while Durant ended up transforming himself into one of the best basketball players on the planet. But despite the drastically different paths they took once they were drafted, KD vehemently disagrees with Oden calling himself “the biggest bust in NBA history.”
Oden made the “biggest bust” statement during a recent interview with ESPN’s Outside the Lines. “I’ll be remembered as the biggest bust in NBA history,” he said. “But I can’t do nothing about that.” Oden did give himself some credit during the interview when he said that he thinks his injuries played a large part in his bust status—”I don’t think I was that bad when I was on the court,” he said—but he is clearly not happy with the way his NBA career played out or the legacy he left behind in the league.
Durant couldn’t disagree with Oden’s statement about him being a bust more. After the Warriors beat the Suns 133-120 on Sunday night, he was asked about what Oden said during his OTL interview. And Durant was quick to shoot down Oden’s assessment of himself. “Nonsense. That’s nonsense,” Durant said of Oden suggesting he was a bust. “In order for you to be a bust, you have to actually play and show people that you progressed as a player. He didn’t get a chance to.”
Durant continued his defense of Oden by talking about what he saw in him when he was able to play for Portland. “He didn’t want to get hurt,” Durant said. “That was the last thing he wanted to do was to get hurt. That wasn’t even in the cards, and he got injured and that was unfortunate. But when he did play, he was a force. Protecting the paint. They were so good with him and LaMarcus down low, with Brandon Roy [and] Andre Miller at the time. They had a nice team. So he was a big part of that. He’s not a bust. He just didn’t play a long time because of injuries, and that’s just what it is.”
Durant is right. Oden may feel like a bust due to his lack of overall production in the NBA. But it’s hard to hate on a guy who struggled with injuries like Oden did, and it’s pretty obvious that, if he had been able to stay healthy, he would have ended up being a much more productive player than he was.
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