Players criss-cross the country, promoting themselves on their national job tours. They lay their basketball skills out for teams to judge, hoping one of them likes enough of what they’ve seen. Maybe they get picked higher than expected; maybe they just get picked.
Then there’s Suitland’s Kevin Durant. He faces no such worries, at least not about his basketball destination. Barring an upset with the first pick, he’ll go to Seattle with the second pick after Portland chooses Greg Oden No. 1.
He faces another dilemma: Should he sign with adidas or Nike? — shoe contracts that could fetch perhaps up to $50 million. There’s already a deal with Upper Deck and other endorsements will follow. So, as others navigate the emotional strain of waiting for the draft, 18-year-old Durant — who only two weeks ago got his driver’s license — dreams of life beyond it; his fate, as many see it, is to become as good as anyone in the league.
“He’s just special,” said Wizards team President Ernie Grunfeld.
Georgetown’s Jeff Green, a Northwestern High School alum, isn’t enjoying a similar fate, but he’s not far off. The Hoya forward’s name has climbed higher on draft boards in recent weeks, with some projecting him to Boston with the fifth overall pick.
At worst, the 6-foot-9 forward will be a lottery pick, so his decision to leave college after his junior season would appear to be a sound one.
The same is true for Durant.
“These last couple of months have been really hectic for me and my family,” Durant, leaving after his freshman season at Texas, told Seattle reporters. “But this is what I wanted to do. I’m happy I’m doing it. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
And he recently told ESPN The Magazine, “I’ve been training to be a franchise player since I was 9 … So these past couple months have been like a dream.”
