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OAKLAND -- Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant has a message for Greg Oden, who told Outside the Lines last week that hell be remembered as the biggest bust in NBA history.Nonsense. Thats nonsense, Durant adamantly told ESPN on Sunday night. In order for you to be a bust, you have to actually play and show people that you progressed as a player. He didnt get a chance to.Oden and Durant were taken No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the 2007 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle SuperSonics. The debates about who would go No. 1 were minimal. Oden was viewed as a future Hall of Fame big man, the next coming of Shaquille ONeal.Portland elected to add the 7-footer to a team that featured rising All-Star Brandon Roy and a young, emerging inside-outside player named?LaMarcus Aldridge. Oden missed his entire rookie season after undergoing microfracture surgery on his knee.His best season was the 2009-10 campaign, when he averaged 11.1 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in 21 games.Multiple knee injuries led to multiple surgical procedures, cutting his career with the Trail Blazers short in March 2012 when the team waived him. In five seasons with the franchise, Oden played in only 82 games and did not play a single game in his final two seasons under contract.After taking the 2012-13 campaign off to regroup and get healthy, Oden got a second chance when the Miami Heat signed him to a one-year deal for the 2013-14 season. He was never able to establish himself as a consistent rotation player and ended up appearing in 23 contests that season. Oden hasnt played in the NBA since.Meanwhile, Durant has become one of the faces of the league. He has won a Rookie of the Year award and an MVP and is a seven-time All-Star and a four-time scoring champ.Oden had previously told Sports Illustrated that he was one of the biggest busts in NBA history and that it would only get worse as Kevin Durant continues doing big things.Once again, Durant defended his draft classmate.He didnt want to get hurt. That was the last thing he wanted to do was to get hurt, Durant told ESPN. That wasnt 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.Hes not a bust. He just didnt play a long time because of injuries, and thats just what it is.Initially, Durant said he desired to play for the Trail Blazers.I definitely wanted to be the No. 1 pick, but I landed in a great situation, he said. I couldnt ask for anything better. I would love to play with LaMarcus and Brandon Roy, but when I was the second pick, I was very excited to get to Seattle. We had traded Ray Allen, like, two picks later, and I was like, Wow. Theyre really opening it up for me and really allowing me to grow as a player. So I didnt even worry about being the No. 1 pick after that. Once we traded Ray Allen, I was like, This is my team. Theyre going to allow me to grow and make my mistakes. So I was looking forward to it.Oden and Durant will always be connected, just as?Michael Jordan and Sam Bowie?were. Unfortunately for the Blazers, they were also involved in that selection in 1984 when they took Bowie No. 2 ahead of Jordan.Although Durant believes it is unfair to compare his career to Odens, he has come to the realization that they will probably be forever connected for various reasons.I think were always going to be linked together as far as our draft class, Durant said. That was [one of the first years] that you had to go to college for a year. So I think that played a part in how big that draft was. We were [one of] the first real one-and-done [classes]. He would have come out of high school; I probably would have done the same, but we had to go to college and we were one-and-done. I think that played a huge part in it, and just the fact that two freshmen went back-to-back 1 and 2 picks, that was a huge part. So were always going to be linked together no matter what. Chris Martin Jersey .2 billion agreement with Rogers Communications for the leagues broadcast and multimedia rights. Tyler Flowers Braves Jersey . -- Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Alrdridge were again the go-to duo for the Trail Blazers against the Kings. https://www.cheapbraves.com/1043o-rafael-ortega-jersey-braves.html . Klitschkos management company says the bout will be the Ukrainian fighters 25th world championship fight. The 1.83-meter (6-foot) Leapai defeated the previously unbeaten Denis Boytsov in November to become the WBOs mandatory challenger. Adam Duvall Jersey . Badenhop was 2-3 with a 3.47 ERA in 63 relief appearances for Milwaukee this season. He is 18-20 in his career with three saves and a 3. John Smoltz Jersey . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. MINNEAPOLIS -- Andrew Wiggins: 47.All five Los Angeles Lakers starters: 47.Wiggins hit 14 of 21 shots to blow past his previous career high of 36, leading the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 125-99 victory over the Lakers on Sunday night.Im finding myself, finding things Im good at and things I need to work on, said Wiggins, nine games into his third season in the league. The game has kind of slowed down for me a little bit. Im able to read defenses better now and see how the defense is set.Wiggins hit 17 of 22 free throws and Nemanja Bjelica added a career-high 24 points and eight rebounds for the Timberwolves, who played without starting guard Zach LaVine and reserve forward Shabazz Muhammad. Both missed the game with sore right knees.Lou Williams scored 13 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter for the Lakers, who got 47 points from their starters and 52 from their bench. Julius Randle had 14 points and six rebounds and Jordan Clarkson scored 14.You let a player as good as him get an additional 22 free chances on that, one hes going to score a lot and two hes going to get hot because hes in a rhythm from all the free throws hes shooting, Lakers coach Luke Walton said. We couldnt really contain him tonight.Wiggins was a team-best plus-34 in 41 minutes, and LaVine showered his close friend with Gatorade during his postgame television interview. The Wolves went 13 of 27 from 3-point range, many of them clean shots coming after the defense collapsed on Wiggins.I think hes just scratching the surface, Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said. I think he can do a lot more.The game featured two of the most promising young cores in the league, with Wiggins, LaVine and Karl-Anthony Towns hoping to end Minnesotas 12-year playoff drought and DAngelo Russell, Randle and Brandon Ingram reviving the Lakers in the post-Kobe era.Entering the season, the Lakers were believed to be a step behind the Wolves in the process, but they won six of their first 10 gaames while Minnesota got off to a disappointing 2-6 start.ddddddddddddBoth teams played on Saturday night, but the Wolves were finishing a rare home back-to-back, and appeared to have the fresher legs all night. The Timberwolves scored 21 points off of 17 Lakers turnovers.TIP-INSLakers: C Timofey Mozgov was in foul trouble all game, playing just 15 minutes before fouling out. ... Ingram played after being listed as questionable with a sprained ankle suffered on Saturday night in New Orleans. Ingram finished with 10 points in 26 minutes. ... The Lakers wrapped up their three-game road trip at 2-1.Timberwolves: Wiggins scored a career-high 25 points in the first half. ... F Brandon Rush missed his fourth straight game, and coach Tom Thibodeau revealed that Rush has been dealing with a bruised big toe on his right foot.BJELICA STARTSWith LaVine injured, Thibodeau inserted the 6-foot-10 Bjelica, normally a power forward, into the lineup at small forward and moved Wiggins to shooting guard. The former Euroleague MVP made five 3s and also had three steals and a block.I thought he played a beautiful game tonight, Thibodeau said. He made really good decisions.LAKERS BENCHThe second unit has been a strength for the Lakers all season, averaging 52.1 points per game in the first 10. The leading scorer from the game has come from their bench in eight of 11 games so far this season.No excuse, Russell said of playing three games on the road in four nights. We just lost.TOWNS STRUGGLESTowns finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds, but he really had to work for it. The reigning rookie of the year made 7 of 22 shots, including just 6 of 10 free throws.UP NEXTLakers: Head home from a three-game road trip to face Brooklyn on Tuesday.Timberwolves: Continue a four-game home stand with a game against the Hornets on Tuesday. ' ' '