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Oden wasn't a slam dunk
While most agreed the center was perfect for Portland, incredible trade offers and Kevin Durant's workout gave Blazers pause
Sunday, July 01, 2007
JASON QUICK - The Oregonian Staff
Bleary-eyed and slightly ashen, Kevin Pritchard spread his arms wide on Friday for the world to see him.
"I mean, look at me," the Trail Blazers general manager invited, poking fun at his disheveled and exhausted appearance.
He had just completed a 33-day investigation into which player best fit the Blazers for the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft -- Greg Oden or Kevin Durant -- and the process had taken its toll.
Even though Pritchard and the Blazers on Thursday chose the player most fans and experts believed was the logical choice all along -- the 7-foot Oden -- the decision was far from easy.
It was a process filled with tantalizing trade offers that included future Hall of Famers, often leaving Pritchard and his staff awake until 3 a.m.
Along the way, the game film of both players created heated exchanges of debate within the Blazers' staff, and at times, the shear magnitude of the decision created moments of paralysis through analysis.
It started May 22, when despite just a 5.3 percent chance to win the NBA's draft lottery, the Blazers won the draft lottery when a combination of four numbers on Ping-Pong balls produced one the biggest moments in franchise history.
The Blazers knew May 22 that winning the top pick was big. Less than 24 hours later, Pritchard said, the team fielded its first trade offer, which confirmed that the pick was coveted around the NBA.
And by June 1, the Blazers and Pritchard knew the pick was special, perhaps bigger than he and the rest of Blazers management ever imagined.
As he drove to Eugene to watch a play with his daughter on May 23, less than 24 hours after winning the lottery, Pritchard took a call from an Eastern Conference general manager, with whom he had past dealings.
The executive made an offer that was moderate in shock value: A five-time All-Star and this year's lottery pick in exchange for the No. 1 pick and the Blazers' 2008 first-round pick.
As enticing as the offer was -- the Blazers in years past had made a run at the All-Star player -- Pritchard declined on the spot.
It would be the start of an exhaustive process of taking phone calls from general managers who wanted to lure the No. 1 pick from Portland.
But the onslaught of initial calls and offers -- most of them so lopsided in favor of the opponent that Pritchard would characterize them as "baloney" -- would do nothing to prepare Pritchard for the upcoming week at the NBA's weeklong predraft camp in Orlando, Fla.
The best players in the draft rarely work out at the camp. Still, the weeklong event attracts representatives from every NBA team, who use the opportunity to mingle and flirt with their peers in search of franchise-changing trades.
And no league executive was more popular that week than Pritchard.
Some proposed trades involving Zach Randolph, the Blazers' star forward. Pritchard had known he eventually would trade Randolph since a prominent player on the team requested at the end of the season that the high-scoring but troubled forward be dealt. But most discussions focused on the No. 1 pick.
The talks got intriguing Thursday, the day before he would leave.
A team within the Blazers division proposed a trade involving a future Hall of Famer and a standout rookie for the Blazers' No. 1 pick.
As Pritchard described it, he stayed up until 3 a.m. in his hotel room with his staff considering the offer.
"We banged our heads together all night," Pritchard said the next morning.
Ultimately, Pritchard and his staff came to a conclusion: They would not make the deal, determining the No. 1 pick was so valuable, that only a trade involving Cleveland star LeBron James would be considered.
It would take eight hours for Pritchard's conviction to be tested.
Sitting high in the stands at the Milk House arena where the marginal prospects scrimmaged -- far from the courtside seats Pritchard so preferred -- Pritchard that morning was approached by a general manager of a Western Conference power.
With bright lights illuminating the court below, Pritchard sat in a darkened corner with the general manager. The general manager wanted the Blazers' No. 1 pick. And he was willing to offer a player that will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Within the span of 24 hours, the Blazers had offers for two certain Hall of Famers in exchange for the No. 1 pick.
The Blazers had visions that winning the No. 1 pick could change their franchise. But when Pritchard boarded his flight leaving Orlando, he knew every other team felt the same way about the pick.
After the long flight from Orlando, Pritchard arrived to his West Linn home feeling like his mind was leaning one way: Oden.
Earlier that day in Orlando, Oden and Durant made a surprise move and participated in a series of drills with other projected lottery picks. Pritchard said he figured both prospects would bypass the workout as had so many future stars in recent years, so he booked a mid-day flight out of Orlando.
He was chagrined upon hearing the two worked out, and his frustration heightened when he got the full report from assistant general manager Tom Penn and director of NBA scouting Michael Born, two members of his staff who saw the workouts.
Oden, Penn and Born reported, was amazing. He showed the sprinting speed of a guard and the dribbling capabilities of a skilled forward. And he showed such explosion and ferocity when attacking the rim that one Blazers executive predicted that Oden one day would cause a backboard to collapse in a game.
Durant, on the other hand, looked less interested in the exercises, doing little to impress beyond his length and fluidity.
After getting the full report from Penn and Born, Pritchard was awed.
All the while, Pritchard couldn't help but remember a conversation he had earlier that week with Gregg Popovich. Pritchard said the Spurs coach told him he was in a position to experience a twin-towers tandem unlike any other in NBA history. Sure, Popovich had David Robinson and Tim Duncan, who combined to win two championships. But Robinson, Popovich reminded Pritchard, retired five years after Duncan joined the Spurs.
Pritchard, meanwhile, could pair LaMarcus Aldridge, his budding big man who had just been named to the All-Rookie team, with Oden. The tandem could blossom and play together for 10 years -- and unlike Robinson and Duncan -- Aldridge and Oden could play together when both were in their prime.
"Aldridge and Oden," Pritchard said that night. "Could you imagine?"
It was June 1, and Oden appeared to be the Blazers' pick.
Even though Pritchard admitted he was leaning toward Oden on June 1, he privately chastised himself.
He had preached to his staff of young evaluators that the organization would keep an open mind throughout the process, making sure Durant received equal consideration.
To help, Pritchard referred to one of his favorite books: "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey.
"It's one of my bibles," Pritchard said.
A practice in the book suggests writing goals on your bathroom mirror that you would like to accomplish in 30, 60 and 90 days.
"So on my bathroom mirror I wrote 'Keep an open mind,' " Pritchard said. "And that's all I put. I took down my 60- and 90-day goals."
As Pritchard would see his goal on the mirror every morning, he would try to block out what was becoming an overwhelming swell of fan support for Oden. The team conducted a poll on its Web site, which eventually produced a more than 2-to-1 ratio in favor of Oden. And the team bought space on five billboards around Portland, prompting drivers to honk once for Oden, or honk twice for Durant.
"I've received a lot of 'Honk once' e-mails," Pritchard quipped on June 16.
His "open mind" policy was being tested.
"Did I find myself leaning one way or another at times? You better believe it," Pritchard said the day after the draft. "But every day I came in here, I had to say to my scouts, 'Keep an open mind', because if I didn't, I felt my scouts would immediately go the same way I was. I wanted there to be healthy debate."
Pritchard soon would get the debate for which he was looking.
On June 20, Oden worked out for the Blazers. Admittedly, Oden was subpar in the drills, missing several easy shots, in part because of his nerves and possibly because of a cold.
Two days later, Durant came to Portland for his workout and put on such a display that Pritchard deemed the session the best he has ever seen.
Up the road in Seattle, Oden was visiting with the Seattle SuperSonics, who owned the No. 2 overall pick. Word of Durant's workout quickly trickled north.
"I was definitely worried," Oden recalled. "I didn't feel I had a good workout. And I did hear (Durant) had a good workout. Believe me, I had a couple beads of sweat coming down my face about that."
Back in Portland, the Blazers' staff began the first of many serious discussions.
"We questioned everything," Pritchard said. "And it made me always on the defensive. (Owner) Paul (Allen) gets into this devil's advocate thing, and I found myself doing it with our scouts all the time. Then Paul and I had a long discussion, about two hours with the scouts, and we were all playing devil's advocate. Nothing was getting done."
Meanwhile, the trade offers kept coming -- some for Randolph, many for the pick. At one point, in the week of the draft, Pritchard found his Blackberry loaded with 44 messages, most of them from league executives.
In the days that followed, Pritchard looked increasingly haggard. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot, and his usually sharp business attire was replaced with shorts and sandals.
He said a good night's sleep for him in the days leading up to the draft was three hours. Often, however, it was less. He spent his nights watching, and re-watching game film of each player.
"I owed it to the organization," Pritchard said. "So I watched the film, and I made sure I went through the process. Because what if everybody made up their mind one day, and then down the line we uncovered something?"
The Blazers didn't finalize their decision until draft day. At about 4:37 p.m. PDT, commissioner David Stern announced that Portland "selects Greg Oden." Within two hours, the Blazers completed a deal that was more surprising to the public -- they traded Randolph to the Knicks.
Pritchard had made his decisions.
Oden wasn't a slam dunk
While most agreed the center was perfect for Portland, incredible trade offers and Kevin Durant's workout gave Blazers pause
Sunday, July 01, 2007
JASON QUICK - The Oregonian Staff
Bleary-eyed and slightly ashen, Kevin Pritchard spread his arms wide on Friday for the world to see him.
"I mean, look at me," the Trail Blazers general manager invited, poking fun at his disheveled and exhausted appearance.
He had just completed a 33-day investigation into which player best fit the Blazers for the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft -- Greg Oden or Kevin Durant -- and the process had taken its toll.
Even though Pritchard and the Blazers on Thursday chose the player most fans and experts believed was the logical choice all along -- the 7-foot Oden -- the decision was far from easy.
It was a process filled with tantalizing trade offers that included future Hall of Famers, often leaving Pritchard and his staff awake until 3 a.m.
Along the way, the game film of both players created heated exchanges of debate within the Blazers' staff, and at times, the shear magnitude of the decision created moments of paralysis through analysis.
It started May 22, when despite just a 5.3 percent chance to win the NBA's draft lottery, the Blazers won the draft lottery when a combination of four numbers on Ping-Pong balls produced one the biggest moments in franchise history.
The Blazers knew May 22 that winning the top pick was big. Less than 24 hours later, Pritchard said, the team fielded its first trade offer, which confirmed that the pick was coveted around the NBA.
And by June 1, the Blazers and Pritchard knew the pick was special, perhaps bigger than he and the rest of Blazers management ever imagined.
As he drove to Eugene to watch a play with his daughter on May 23, less than 24 hours after winning the lottery, Pritchard took a call from an Eastern Conference general manager, with whom he had past dealings.
The executive made an offer that was moderate in shock value: A five-time All-Star and this year's lottery pick in exchange for the No. 1 pick and the Blazers' 2008 first-round pick.
As enticing as the offer was -- the Blazers in years past had made a run at the All-Star player -- Pritchard declined on the spot.
It would be the start of an exhaustive process of taking phone calls from general managers who wanted to lure the No. 1 pick from Portland.
But the onslaught of initial calls and offers -- most of them so lopsided in favor of the opponent that Pritchard would characterize them as "baloney" -- would do nothing to prepare Pritchard for the upcoming week at the NBA's weeklong predraft camp in Orlando, Fla.
The best players in the draft rarely work out at the camp. Still, the weeklong event attracts representatives from every NBA team, who use the opportunity to mingle and flirt with their peers in search of franchise-changing trades.
And no league executive was more popular that week than Pritchard.
Some proposed trades involving Zach Randolph, the Blazers' star forward. Pritchard had known he eventually would trade Randolph since a prominent player on the team requested at the end of the season that the high-scoring but troubled forward be dealt. But most discussions focused on the No. 1 pick.
The talks got intriguing Thursday, the day before he would leave.
A team within the Blazers division proposed a trade involving a future Hall of Famer and a standout rookie for the Blazers' No. 1 pick.
As Pritchard described it, he stayed up until 3 a.m. in his hotel room with his staff considering the offer.
"We banged our heads together all night," Pritchard said the next morning.
Ultimately, Pritchard and his staff came to a conclusion: They would not make the deal, determining the No. 1 pick was so valuable, that only a trade involving Cleveland star LeBron James would be considered.
It would take eight hours for Pritchard's conviction to be tested.
Sitting high in the stands at the Milk House arena where the marginal prospects scrimmaged -- far from the courtside seats Pritchard so preferred -- Pritchard that morning was approached by a general manager of a Western Conference power.
With bright lights illuminating the court below, Pritchard sat in a darkened corner with the general manager. The general manager wanted the Blazers' No. 1 pick. And he was willing to offer a player that will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Within the span of 24 hours, the Blazers had offers for two certain Hall of Famers in exchange for the No. 1 pick.
The Blazers had visions that winning the No. 1 pick could change their franchise. But when Pritchard boarded his flight leaving Orlando, he knew every other team felt the same way about the pick.
After the long flight from Orlando, Pritchard arrived to his West Linn home feeling like his mind was leaning one way: Oden.
Earlier that day in Orlando, Oden and Durant made a surprise move and participated in a series of drills with other projected lottery picks. Pritchard said he figured both prospects would bypass the workout as had so many future stars in recent years, so he booked a mid-day flight out of Orlando.
He was chagrined upon hearing the two worked out, and his frustration heightened when he got the full report from assistant general manager Tom Penn and director of NBA scouting Michael Born, two members of his staff who saw the workouts.
Oden, Penn and Born reported, was amazing. He showed the sprinting speed of a guard and the dribbling capabilities of a skilled forward. And he showed such explosion and ferocity when attacking the rim that one Blazers executive predicted that Oden one day would cause a backboard to collapse in a game.
Durant, on the other hand, looked less interested in the exercises, doing little to impress beyond his length and fluidity.
After getting the full report from Penn and Born, Pritchard was awed.
All the while, Pritchard couldn't help but remember a conversation he had earlier that week with Gregg Popovich. Pritchard said the Spurs coach told him he was in a position to experience a twin-towers tandem unlike any other in NBA history. Sure, Popovich had David Robinson and Tim Duncan, who combined to win two championships. But Robinson, Popovich reminded Pritchard, retired five years after Duncan joined the Spurs.
Pritchard, meanwhile, could pair LaMarcus Aldridge, his budding big man who had just been named to the All-Rookie team, with Oden. The tandem could blossom and play together for 10 years -- and unlike Robinson and Duncan -- Aldridge and Oden could play together when both were in their prime.
"Aldridge and Oden," Pritchard said that night. "Could you imagine?"
It was June 1, and Oden appeared to be the Blazers' pick.
Even though Pritchard admitted he was leaning toward Oden on June 1, he privately chastised himself.
He had preached to his staff of young evaluators that the organization would keep an open mind throughout the process, making sure Durant received equal consideration.
To help, Pritchard referred to one of his favorite books: "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey.
"It's one of my bibles," Pritchard said.
A practice in the book suggests writing goals on your bathroom mirror that you would like to accomplish in 30, 60 and 90 days.
"So on my bathroom mirror I wrote 'Keep an open mind,' " Pritchard said. "And that's all I put. I took down my 60- and 90-day goals."
As Pritchard would see his goal on the mirror every morning, he would try to block out what was becoming an overwhelming swell of fan support for Oden. The team conducted a poll on its Web site, which eventually produced a more than 2-to-1 ratio in favor of Oden. And the team bought space on five billboards around Portland, prompting drivers to honk once for Oden, or honk twice for Durant.
"I've received a lot of 'Honk once' e-mails," Pritchard quipped on June 16.
His "open mind" policy was being tested.
"Did I find myself leaning one way or another at times? You better believe it," Pritchard said the day after the draft. "But every day I came in here, I had to say to my scouts, 'Keep an open mind', because if I didn't, I felt my scouts would immediately go the same way I was. I wanted there to be healthy debate."
Pritchard soon would get the debate for which he was looking.
On June 20, Oden worked out for the Blazers. Admittedly, Oden was subpar in the drills, missing several easy shots, in part because of his nerves and possibly because of a cold.
Two days later, Durant came to Portland for his workout and put on such a display that Pritchard deemed the session the best he has ever seen.
Up the road in Seattle, Oden was visiting with the Seattle SuperSonics, who owned the No. 2 overall pick. Word of Durant's workout quickly trickled north.
"I was definitely worried," Oden recalled. "I didn't feel I had a good workout. And I did hear (Durant) had a good workout. Believe me, I had a couple beads of sweat coming down my face about that."
Back in Portland, the Blazers' staff began the first of many serious discussions.
"We questioned everything," Pritchard said. "And it made me always on the defensive. (Owner) Paul (Allen) gets into this devil's advocate thing, and I found myself doing it with our scouts all the time. Then Paul and I had a long discussion, about two hours with the scouts, and we were all playing devil's advocate. Nothing was getting done."
Meanwhile, the trade offers kept coming -- some for Randolph, many for the pick. At one point, in the week of the draft, Pritchard found his Blackberry loaded with 44 messages, most of them from league executives.
In the days that followed, Pritchard looked increasingly haggard. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot, and his usually sharp business attire was replaced with shorts and sandals.
He said a good night's sleep for him in the days leading up to the draft was three hours. Often, however, it was less. He spent his nights watching, and re-watching game film of each player.
"I owed it to the organization," Pritchard said. "So I watched the film, and I made sure I went through the process. Because what if everybody made up their mind one day, and then down the line we uncovered something?"
The Blazers didn't finalize their decision until draft day. At about 4:37 p.m. PDT, commissioner David Stern announced that Portland "selects Greg Oden." Within two hours, the Blazers completed a deal that was more surprising to the public -- they traded Randolph to the Knicks.
Pritchard had made his decisions.
