Here’s a thought: With the first pick of the 2009 NBA Draft, the Oklahoma City Thunder select…Blake Griffin, University of Oklahoma.It’d be a fitting destination for the Big 12 star and would make the Thunder a heck of an entertaining group to watch. Consider these factors:1. If the NBA season ended today, Oklahoma City, a league-worst 7-33, would have a solid chance of landing the top pick in the Draft lottery. Griffin is the projected No. 1 pick, according to nbadraft.net and draftexpress.com right now.2. I’d think drafting Griffin would immediately raise the level of interest amongst the townies who are unsure as to whether they want to embrace this franchise, which is in its first year of existence in Oklahoma City after being in Seattle for the past 41 years. After all, Griffin grew up playing high school basketball in the Thunder’s backyard at Oklahoma Christian School. Now he’s playing college ball 25 minutes south of Oklahoma City in Norman, Okla. 3. I’m no NBA fanatic, but I’d dip into some of my paycheck to witness Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant play on the same team. Durant, the former Longhorn great, and Griffin, the current Sooner great, would put people in the stands. In fact, the Thunder would have a rather impressive nucleus with Durant (23.7 points per game, 7.2 boards per game), Griffin, Jeff Green (16.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg) of Georgetown and Russell Westbrook (14.4 ppg) of UCLA.Plus, it’d be interesting to see the Big 12 talent this team would put on the court: Griffin, Durant, Nick Collison (I think you all know where he went to school), and Desmond Mason (Oklahoma State).I had the chance to interview Griffin in 2006 when he played AAU summer ball in the K.C. Prep Invitational in Shawnee. You could tell he was a serious prospect. Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel was on hand doing some scouting, and the then-17 year old Griffin looked dominant, even with a hurt shoulder at the time.When I asked Griffin, who had already committed to OU, what he expected to bring to the Sooners, he said, “I’d love to help them go and win a national championship.”At the time it seemed unrealistic, but now Oklahoma’s atop the Big 12, ranked No. 6 in the nation and 16-1 on the season. And Griffin’s one of the best, if not the best, players in the nation. His statement from 2006 now looks pretty brilliant three years later.In a few months, especially if OU makes a deep NCAA Tournament run, the NBA team that wins the lottery for the No. 1 pick shouldn’t have to take more than two seconds to make the selection. It’d just be really exciting if the team that wins the lottery is Oklahoma City.
