greg oden

McMillan doesn’t second-guess the [Portland Trail Blazers’] choice of drafting Oden over Durant with the first pick in the 2007 draft.

“We felt at that time we needed a big guy,” McMillan says. “That’s one of those unfortunate situations. Greg had some major injuries.

“No question in my mind, if he had stayed healthy, he would have been able to have a huge impact for us on the court. What Durant has done speaks for itself, but there were two No. 1 picks in that draft.”

The rash of injuries with the Blazers was nothing more than bum luck, says McMillan, who was on the injured list himself with a torn Achilles’ tendon at one point.

“I don’t blame any of it on the medical staff,” he says. “They had absolutely nothing to do with it. Neither did my coaching or how we were training (the players).

“It was just a series of unfortunate situations. Like with Greg, where we didn’t have an opportunity to oversee this last year because of the lockout. He had a setback, but that wasn’t on our medical staff. It wasn’t Jay (Jensen, the trainer) or our strength and conditioning guys.”

– Reported by Steve Brandon of the Portland Tribune