Boo Hoo! Oden and Durant are Going West

             

There are many blowhards whining about how the fact that Portland and Seattle will be drafting Greg Oden and Kevin Durant ... that it's horrible for the NBA. 

Why?

They say that East Coast fans won't get to see these two young stars play a lot because a bulk of their games are after their bedtime.  So?

Look, the furthest west I have ever been is Nashville ... and that was nearly 20 years ago.  I don't see the gripe.  Two of the NBA's current big stars are Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash ... and we all get to see them quite a bit, don't we?

Back in the 1990s, the brightest young star was some kid named Ken Griffey, Jr ... and he played in Seattle.  How's life been for him since he moved further east?  Oh, and 'roids or not, San Francisco has been much better to Barry Bonds than Pittsburgh ever was.  The NHL's biggest star, Wayne Gretzky, spent most of his career in Edmonton and Los Angeles. 

So, New York or Philly or Boston won't get these monstrous talents.  Who cares?  It makes those media outlets have to go outside their backyard to find where the talent is.  Call it the exact opposite of baseball ... where all you hear about is the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets and they rarely care what's going on outside those areas anyways.  Case in point: it was all about the Mets-Yankees interleague series last weekend instead of the World Series rematch between the Cardinals and Tigers.  ESPN can't go 10 minutes without uttering the word "Yankees". 

So screw 'em if the NBA's Western Conference has all the stars.  All the East really has is LeBron and Wade ... and a fading Shaq.  The West has Kobe, Nash, Dirk, Duncan, KG, Yao, T-Mac, Iverson, Melo, Amare, Paul, Parker, Boozer and soon ... Oden and Durant. 

And, remember east coast fans ... it is fair that Portland and Seattle has the first picks in the draft.  After all the top draft picks in the last four drafts went to eastern teams:
2006-Toronto, Chicago, Charlotte
2005-Bucks, Hawks
2004-Magic, Bobcats, Bulls
2003-Cavaliers, Pistons

So, east coast lovers, enjoy the 70 games the Red Sox and Yankees play this year because once NBA season comes ... you can just buy tickets to the 15 times a Western team comes to town.