The NBA will live on

With the No. 1 pick in this year's NBA Draft the Portland Trail Blazers selected center Greg Oden.

With the No. 2 pick in this year's NBA Draft the Seattle SuperSonics crush the dreams of all East Coast fans. Wait, no, they only selected the best player available forward Kevin Durant.

Over the past month, it has been tiring to hear that the worst thing for the NBA is that the Pacific Northwest stole this years lottery. Most analysts were just outraged that neither Boston or New York landed a top three pick.

But, Oden and Durant going to the Pacific Northwest is just what the NBA needs.

Both Seattle and Portland have histories in the NBA. Forty-eight combined playoff appearances and two titles split between the teams. While they are not a storied as as the LA Lakers (14 titles) or Boston (16 titles), getting the top two players in the draft moving West will only help reignite the two franchises.

In the mid-1990s, Seattle was one of the most exciting teams to watch. Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton and Detlef Schrempf led the Sonics to three consecutive division titles and one appearance in the NBA finals. With today's draft pick of Durant and the trade for the No. 5 pick and Jeff Green the prospect of winning is back and hopefully help the Sonics remain in Seattle.

What more can be said about Portland. Blazermania should return quickly to the City of Roses and be just a crazy as 1977 when they league champs.

As these teams become more competitive the league will benefit. Having the same teams in the playoffs and finals year-after-year is boring. Just look at the ratings from the last NBA Finals. San Antonio won its fourth championship in nine seasons and 'yawn' nobody cared.

But an upstart Golden State team, who had been absent from the playoffs for 12 years, won a series and people noticed. For the disenfranchised fans in the Northwest, today's draft is the best thing that happened in years.