| 09 March 2010
Say what you will about Adam Morrison, but the guy is at least honest with himself.
“Sometimes,” Morrison said when I asked if he ever thinks what his career would be like had Portland drafted him in the first round back in 2006 instead of Charlotte.
“Obviously my career hasn’t gone how I would have liked it to, but I’m in the right place now.”
On Monday, the Portland Sentinel online ran a quick story – “McMillan Wanted Morrison Over Roy” - I’ve been sitting on since I originally came across the mention of it in January from an article (with a very fitting title I might add) by Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times back in 2006.
"I liked [Gonzaga's] Adam Morrison in the draft," McMillan said in the article, before detailing exactly why Brandon Roy was (and is) the perfect fit for Portland.
By Monday night, I was talking about the “Morrison Over Roy” story on Blazers Courtside with Mike Barrett and Mike Rice, making a point to credit Kelley with the actual idea after some initial research. But for me, there was more to the story than simply Nate saying he liked Morrison in the draft. I was more interested in the other parties involved and their stance on the story: namely Adam, Brandon and of course Kevin Pritchard.
Hindsight is a beautiful thing.
Because knowing what Morrison did at Gonzaga, there were plenty NBA front offices and head coaches around the league that loved that kid coming out of college. Plenty. No one knew he’d blow out his ACL. No one knew he’d struggle to comeback the following year. No one knew Larry Brown wasn’t that fond of the Morrison’s game.
No one knew he’d barely sniff the floor in Los Angeles.
This story wasn’t about McMillan dismissing Roy, after a less than shining predraft workout.
This was a story about two paths to the NBA: Morrison taking a major detour to basically a four-year dead end, while Roy keeps rolling right along on his road to stardom.
Let’s think about this story in broader terms though. Let’s say Portland did decide to draft Morrison in ‘06. Now we’re talking about the Blazers drafting Martell Webster over Chris Paul and Deron Williams in 2005 – after Portland traded down in the draft, and Greg Oden instead of Kevin Durant in 2007. Those three drafts were the building blocks (Webster, Roy, Oden) of what Portland has become today.
But here’s the question: what would the Blazers be building towards now if those names (Paul or Williams, Morrison, Durant) were changed?
And be honest.
photo: zimbio
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