The Blazers knocked over the first domino Thursday night in the 2007 NBA draft, selecting Ohio State’s Greg Oden to anchor their low post for the next decade.

Seattle quickly followed, taking one of the most gifted scorers and all-around forwards the college game has ever seen, the 2007 consensus NCAA Player of the Year, Kevin Durant.

While selecting Durant was a no-brainer, Sonics General Manager Sam Presti now has his work cut out reshaping their roster around the young star. Presti didn’t waste any time getting started, shipping franchise cornerstone Ray Allen to Boston to get the No. 5 pick, Georgetown’s Jeff Green, as well as Wally Szerbiak and Delonte West. The decision to bring in Szerbiak and select two young 6′10″ small forwards likely means free agent Rashard Lewis’ Seattle days are over as well. Quite a makeover on draft night for the Supes.

With the third pick, Atlanta took Al Horford. Another no-brainer. Congratulations to Atlanta for doing the right thing. There were a lot of doubters. Memphis also improved, selecting solid point guard Mike Conley at No. 4.

It was curious to see Yi Jianlian go sixth to Milwaukee. I’m not sure how comfortable the 7-foot Chinese national is going to be in Beer Town. Guess we’ll find out!

But overall, I guess for me the biggest first-round surprise Thursday night was the relative lack of surprises. The Ray Allen trade moved the needle, but there really wasn’t much drama after that.

Oh well, there’s always next year…

RED

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Durant or Oden? Oden or Durant? For the first time in years, the NBA draft features two franchise players, a lot of good prospects and no clear-cut answers.

Portland will decide the fate of two teams and a long-standing Northwest rivalry with the first pick. Everyone thinks they’ll take Oden, but Durant knocked their socks off with his workout. The pressure’s on Portland to make the right move.

At No. 2, the Sonics can’t lose. Oden is a perfect fit with their existing roster. If he falls to them, we’ll be seeing the Sonics in May for years to come. If they get Durant, they’ll have to make some other moves, but for a player like him, it’s a nice problem to have.

After the top two, expect Al Horford to go No. 3 to Atlanta. He’s not on the same plane as the first two, but he’s a notch above everyone else.

At that point, anything can happen. Another distinguishing feature of this year’s draft is the torrent of trade rumors swirling every which way. Expect teams to be moving up, down and shaking all around as the first round goes down.

Kevin Garnett could move. Luke Ridnour. Shawn Marion. A lot of teams are talking to a lot of teams.

If you’re a fan of the NBA, tune in early for this one.

RED

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Yesterday, Switzerland’s Roger Federer ambled into the All England Club’s historic Centre Court to kick off the tournament known worldwide as the pinnacle of tennis. The roof was gone. The grass was wet. He was playing Teimuraz Gabashvili.

Undaunted by all that, Federer won the match and made the first step in seeking his fifth straight Wimbledon title. For comparison, Pete Sampras won seven, but only four in a row. John McEnroe and Boris Becker could only muster one back-to-backer. This is a big deal. My money is on Federer to become the first player since Bjorn Borg to accomplish the feat.

Besides Federer’s historic run, the biggest news at Wimbledon this year may be the venue and tournament themselves. The center court is getting a facelift and a new roof is under construction. It’s on target for 2009, but this being 2007, the court looks a little choppy. Not to mention, everyone got wet.

They’re trying out a new electronic line-calling tool in the Centre and No. 1 courts too, called “Hawk-Eye.” Players are able to argue calls using instant replay, and it remains to be seen whether Hawkeye will appeal the decision to Col. Potter.

Another major change not just for Wimbledon but all of sports is that the women’s purse for the first time equals the men’s. The winner of each gender will receive 655,000 British Pounds, which is good for about 14.2 million Pesos today.

Which of course begs the question, does Serena Williams really need another 14.2 million Pesos?

RED

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How about that Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks?

The man who signed Alex Rodriguez to a contract that devastated their roster for years. The man who then traded Rodriguez to the only team that could afford his outrageous deal (read: Yankees). The man who STILL owes A-Rod $7 million per year to play in New York, came out against Juan Gonzalez this week - his team’s all-time home runs leader and two-time AL MVP.

Why? Well, the man who gave Chan Ho Park $65 million to serve up meatballs for four years also signed Juan Gone for two years, after his prime, and only got 152 games out of him for $24 million.

Hicks said this week that they basically “gave that money away” to Gonzalez. He’s “suspicious” that Igor’s body was shot because he’d used steroids.

Playing only 82 games in 2003, Gonzalez hit 24 homers, batted in 70 runs, hit .294 and had an OPS of .901. Half a season? Yes. But “throwing money away”?

Let’s remember that Gonzalez also hit 372 of his 434 career home runs for the Rangers. Before Hicks’ inflated deal, Juan Gone played in Texas 11 years. He won the AL MVP twice, while leading them to three division titles.

Think Hicks would have complained to the media about his suspicions then?

Think Juan Gone might have earned some equity?

Think it’s good business for any professional sports owner to bitterly accuse one of his all-time greats of cheating?

In every walk of life, people blame others for their own mistakes. Hicks has hurt his team with bad deals, and now he’s hurting his team and all of baseball by shooting off his mouth.

No wonder the Rangers are in last place again.

RED

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Torn left hamstring. Torn patellar tendon. Dislocated right shoulder. Torn ankle tendon.

Torn right hamstring, torn right hamstring, torn right hamstring.

After more than a decade playing his heart out on artificial turf, Ken Griffey Jr.’s body had been battered, bruised, beaten. And being a thirtysomething, he could only go downhill from there, right?

Wrong. At 37, Griffey is looking like a 40-homer man again, giving Reds fans the show they deserve after so many years of crutches and ankle tape.

Tuesday night Junior hit his 19th home run of the season in the Reds’ win over Oakland. It was his seventh in the last 12 games.

It was also the 582nd of his career - leaving him one behind Mark McGwire for seventh all time. It was his 1076th extra base hit, moving him past Reggie Jackson for 18th on that list. His 1,652 career RBI are also good for 18th.

This despite having missed 435 games over seven injury-plagued seasons with the Reds. That’s 2.69 full seasons according to my trusty calculator. He also missed half a season with the Mariners in 1995 with a broken hand.

Without those absences, there’s no question the Natural would be on a pace to surpass the supernatural Barry Bonds and the timeless Hammerin’ Hank.

Symbolizing the return of Griffey’s monstrous game, he returns Friday night to “The House that Griffey Built” - Seattle’s Safeco Field - where the Reds will take on the Mariners in a weekend series. It’s his first return to Safeco since 1999.

There is no way to overstate Griffey’s contribution to baseball in Seattle. The Mariners simply wouldn’t be there without him. So expect some trickling tears and ticker-tape for this one folks. The Kid is back, in more ways than one.

Let’s just hope he stays healthy through the weekend, so we can enjoy it.

RED

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What a day at Oakmont last Sunday. The course was as unforgiving as my ex-mother-in-law. Forty-foot putts were rolling back and forth like pinballs. Triple bogeys and divots were served up like hot dogs.

In the end three players made a charge - Tiger, No. 3-ranked Jim Furyk, and the dark horse, Argentinean Angel Cabrera.

Woods missed a 30-footer on 18 that would have given him a share of the lead. Without a birdie on the day, he finished two over at 72.

Furyk smoldered and almost caught fire with some dazzling putts down the stretch, but left some shots in the rough on 17 and couldn’t capitalize.

Playing ahead of Woods and Furyk, Cabrera chain-smoked his way up the back nine, playing as if he were calm, but never looking it. In the end he became only the second player from Argentina to win a PGA major, and the first since 1967.

Revealing his secret for dealing with the stress and locking down his first major, Cabrera uttered one of the classic lines in golf history.

“There are some players that have psychologists,” he said. “I smoke.”

RED

Well, I’m glad that’s over. Never have I picked an underdog that ended up being such a…dog.

To recap, the Cavaliers lost to the Spurs in straight sets, in one of the most lopsided NBA Finals ever. They never held a lead in the second half until game four. It was utter humiliation from the opening tip-off in Texas, until the confetti rained down on their home floor. Patsies one and all.

San Antonio, meanwhile, becomes just the fourth team in NBA history to win four championships, all coming in the last nine years. They’ve won three of the last five.

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that their Big Three - Parker, Ginobili and Duncan - average 28.3 years of age. They are all in their prime.

In other words, this is a dynasty folks. You can now say “Spurs” in the same sentence with the Lakers, Bulls and Celtics as some of the winningest franchises in all of sports.

It looks like I’ll have someone to root against for years to come.

RED

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A few days ago I wrote that this year’s NBA Finals would be nothing less than a coming out party for LeBron James. How long ago that seems.

Two games and a complete dismantling of LeBron’s upstart Cavaliers later, this year’s debutante looks like the Spurs’ Tony Parker. He ran layup drills in Game One for 27 points, then shook off a sore back and dropped 30 on the Cavs Sunday night on 13-20 shooting.

After being basically tarred and feathered and run out of San Antonio on a rail, is there any good news for the Cavs?

For one thing, LeBron’s crew managed to make things interesting for a few minutes Sunday night, storming back from what seemed like an 87-point deficit to pull within eight. If they keep playing possum like this, they could lull the Spurs into a false sense of security.

And for another, there have been upwards of 200 teams in the NBA’s storied history to go down by two games in a seven-game series. Of those, 12 have managed to come back.

12?? Well, that’s like six percent.

Not exactly hopeful news unless you consider that the 12th team on that list is…
The 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers.

RED

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Well, that was a bit of a blow to those of us who support the King James version of this year’s NBA finals, wasn’t it?

In case you missed the game, it was a classic San Antonio low-scoring slugfest. LeBron was stifled, shooting 4-16 for 14 points, with six turnovers. Clang! His teammates didn’t chip in much offense either.

Meanwhile, Tim Duncan was his normal self, going for 24 points, 13 boards and five blocks, while Tony Parker threw down 27 - streaking in for lay-up after lay-up.

Bruce Bowen was in there too, as always, scratching and clucking like a barnyard hen and doing whatever else he does.

I’m not jumping off the bandwagon yet, though. Yes, LeBron is only 22 years old, trying to lead his team through his first finals. Yes, San Antonio is mean and nasty. (The crowd, I mean. And the team isn’t very nice either.)

Yes, the Spurs easily dictated the tempo of the game.

Yes, the team that wins Game One goes on to win it all nearly three-quarters of the time.

Yes, my resistance to San Antonio is mostly based on stubbornness and spite.

But, hey, how about those Mighty Ducks?

RED

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The Spurs are the easy pick in this year’s NBA Finals. They have the experience. They have a deeper team. They have Tim Duncan. They have a quick little point guard.

But they also have their hands full in this series with the Cavaliers, precisely because LeBron James will nullify the Spurs’ fake, synthetic, non-basketball advantage on the perimeter.

You see, the Spurs are able to beat most teams because they distract opponents’ perimeter players with cheap shots, elbows and bloody noses, while Parker and Duncan do their thing. They give a lot of minutes to perimeter “defensive specialists” who are really just schoolyard hacks.

It serves them well, but that approach is not going to work in the NBA Finals this year.

For one thing, the league is not going to sit back and twiddle its thumbs while Bruce Bowen tees off on LeBron the way he did on Steve Nash.

And for another - let’s face it - LeBron doesn’t need the league’s help anyway.

LeBron is too big, too fast and too strong. He is going to school Bruce Bowen again and again - just like he did during the regular season - and he is going to posterize the flat-footed Duncan.

It may not be the logical pick, but hey, that’s half the fun right?

Cavs in six.

RED

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