. . . But Teams Survive With Big Men Such as Oden

He's exactly what Portland needs, exactly what the league needs as a counter to Kobe Bryant's continued self-absorption. Every time Oden opens his mouth, he says the right thing, about pressure, about his elders, about being seen as some kind of savior in the Pacific Northwest. At a time when there's way too much Terrell Owens in the world of sports, Oden is a stiff breeze of fresh air.

He wrote of college in his blog recently:

"I am going to miss it so much, when September rolls around next year I'll be in pre-season, and my peers will be meeting back up for another go around at this college thing. To be honest it is so much more than that. It's the place when you get fed up with your parents, you get to get away. It's not just the place where you receive higher learning, it's where you become an adult. You get to see, do and learn things that you don't know about in high school. You meet new people everyday, people who may turn out to be life long friends.

"Even though I didn't live the normal college life most kids do, Ohio State is really more of a football school, which allowed me to be as normal as possible (that is until after the national championship game). I will always be grateful to Columbus, OH and every Buckeye for that. I dont know when, but I will get my degree and be apart of this Buckeye Nation. . . . I'm wanting to stay for every last minute and enjoy this because you can't get it back. I'm about to be put in a man's world, letting go of that kid in me is hard."

You think Oden gets it?

You talk to him in these weeks leading up to the draft, as I have been able to do a few times, and it's possible he's on course to have a bit of David Robinson's integrity, Grant Hill's intelligence and Shaq's charm and self-deprecation.

I'm not going to devote one negative word to Durant. There doesn't seem to be a thing this kid can't do . . . except be a 280-pound anchor down in the hole playing Goliath. If these kids are as good as they played in the NCAA tournament as freshmen, as good as the scouts think they are and as good as they present themselves, we could have something close to the effect of Bird and Magic coming into the NBA 28 years ago. No draft-night decision was involved in the selection of Bird and Magic; Red Auerbach had snookered Bird a year earlier in a draft steal that forced a change in draft eligibility rules.

This is head-to-head stuff: Durant the all-court phenom who is coming along at a time when Big Men are being de-emphasized, and Oden, that rare mastodon of a man who makes anybody who pays attention check the record and realize that size in the NBA always, always, always matters.