40 Acres Sports

Daniel Gibson on NBA TV talking about the draft and Kevin Durant. The two could have been great duo this year.

With the second pick in the 2007 NBA Draft the Seattle Supersonics select [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag]…

Okay, it hasn’t happened yet but the Sonics won the right to pick second in the draft at tonight’s draft lottery. [tag]LaMarcus Aldridge[/tag]’s Portland Trailblazers secured the number one overall pick despite having only a 5.3% chance to win the pick. The Spurs and Mavericks are breathing a little easier after the Atlanta Hawks won the third pick and therefore don’t have to hand it over to Phoenix.

Seattle isn’t a great situation for Durant, but there’s certainly worse places to go (namely Atlanta or Memphis). The team is in a state of disarray both on and off the court. Not a great place from a marketability standpoint either, as most of the team’s games start too late for the other time zones to watch. Plus, there’s still the rumor that they want to move the team to Oklahoma City. That would mean Texas fans could drive up and see KD play, but then he’d have to live in Oklahoma.

I was rooting for the Blazers to get the number two pick so Aldridge and Durant could team up together. That still could happen, while Greg Oden is definitely the likely pick by Portland it is not a given. ESPN’s Chad Ford even mentioned a possible pick swap between Portland and Seattle since Durant might be a better fit for Portland.

It should come down to the very last minute before we know what’s going to happen with the first pick of next month’s draft. Should make for interesting TV.

Related Links

• Blazers get #1 pick
• True Hoop lottery live blog
• FanHouse mock draft: Blazers take Durant

Texas finally officially signs Dogus Balbay of Turkey. Great addition to our point guard depth.

It’s not a shoe deal, but Kevin Durant has signed his first endorsement deal with Upper Deck. KD will appear on their packaging and packaging and will have a line of autographed items.

The sports card and memorabilia company will market Durant in all of its 2007-08 products, and on its packaging, and will unveil a line of autographed Upper Deck Authenticated items.

Durant’s first card will appear in Fleer Ultra SE and Upper Deck’s First Edition Basketball and his first autograph will appear in Upper Deck SP Game Used Basketball.

Just the first of many of these deals for Durant. The kid is a rare talent and will instantly be one of the most marketable players in the entire NBA. It won’t be long before his face is plastered all over every product you can think of. Do they still make metal lunch boxes? Or even better, I want a Kevin Durant Thermos. That would be sweet.

Congrats Kevin.

LaMarcus Aldridge named to NBA All-Rookie Team. Joined on 1st team by Portland teammate Brandon Roy.

NCAA rules panel approves longer 3-point line, pushing the line back a foot to 20 feet, 9 inches.

Longhorns receive no penalties from NCAA for latest APR figures. Football team is above average.

Goestenkors hires Gale Valley as first assistant coach. Valley was Goestenkors’ long-time assistant at Duke.

Former Longhorn TJ Ford went down with a neck/back injury in tonight’s Raptors’ playoff game:

Toronto Raptors point guard T.J. Ford was admitted to a Toronto hospital Tuesday after leaving an Eastern Conference playoff game against the New Jersey Nets with what team officials said was a “stinger.”

Ford left Game 5 of the quarter-final series with 29.7 seconds left in the first quarter after former Raptor Vince Carter fell on top of him in a scramble for the ball. He lay face down on the floor for a couple of minutes before being helped to his feet.

Raptors officials said he was taken to hospital to undergo precautionary tests.

Ford was born with spinal stenosis (narrowing of spaces in the spine that results in pressure on the spinal cord and on nerve roots) and missed all of the 2004-05 due to a back injury. Hopefully this really was just precautionary and T.J. makes a quick recovery.

Source

Update: TJ was in good enough condition that he was able to return to the team bench before the end of the game. No status update for Friday’s game yet.

As a freshman [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] had the best season ever for a Longhorn basketball player. [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] broke Texas passing records despite missing a game due to injury and only being a redshirt freshman. Sophomore baseball star [tag]Kyle Russell[/tag] has set baseball power records with plenty of games left to play in the season; It’s a great time to be a Texas fan and we’re lucky to get a chance to see all three of these guys play for the Horns in a single year.

Vote below on which one of the three amazing Texas athletes has had (is having) the best season:

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