Vermisste Nasen » third.It could have very easily have been seven or

OAKLAND -- Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant has a message for Greg Oden, who told Outside the Lines last week that hell be remembered as the biggest bust in NBA history.Nonsense. Thats nonsense, Durant adamantly told ESPN on Sunday night. In order for you to be a bust, you have to actually play and show people that you progressed as a player. He didnt get a chance to.Oden and Durant were taken No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the 2007 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle SuperSonics. The debates about who would go No. 1 were minimal. Oden was viewed as a future Hall of Fame big man, the next coming of Shaquille ONeal.Portland elected to add the 7-footer to a team that featured rising All-Star Brandon Roy and a young, emerging inside-outside player named?LaMarcus Aldridge. Oden missed his entire rookie season after undergoing microfracture surgery on his knee.His best season was the 2009-10 campaign, when he averaged 11.1 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in 21 games.Multiple knee injuries led to multiple surgical procedures, cutting his career with the Trail Blazers short in March 2012 when the team waived him. In five seasons with the franchise, Oden played in only 82 games and did not play a single game in his final two seasons under contract.After taking the 2012-13 campaign off to regroup and get healthy, Oden got a second chance when the Miami Heat signed him to a one-year deal for the 2013-14 season. He was never able to establish himself as a consistent rotation player and ended up appearing in 23 contests that season. Oden hasnt played in the NBA since.Meanwhile, Durant has become one of the faces of the league. He has won a Rookie of the Year award and an MVP and is a seven-time All-Star and a four-time scoring champ.Oden had previously told Sports Illustrated that he was one of the biggest busts in NBA history and that it would only get worse as Kevin Durant continues doing big things.Once again, Durant defended his draft classmate.He didnt want to get hurt. That was the last thing he wanted to do was to get hurt, Durant told ESPN. That wasnt even in the cards, and he got injured and that was unfortunate. But when he did play, he was a force. Protecting the paint. They were so good with him and LaMarcus down low, with Brandon Roy [and] Andre Miller at the time. They had a nice team. So he was a big part of that.Hes not a bust. He just didnt play a long time because of injuries, and thats just what it is.Initially, Durant said he desired to play for the Trail Blazers.I definitely wanted to be the No. 1 pick, but I landed in a great situation, he said. I couldnt ask for anything better. I would love to play with LaMarcus and Brandon Roy, but when I was the second pick, I was very excited to get to Seattle. We had traded Ray Allen, like, two picks later, and I was like, Wow. Theyre really opening it up for me and really allowing me to grow as a player. So I didnt even worry about being the No. 1 pick after that. Once we traded Ray Allen, I was like, This is my team. Theyre going to allow me to grow and make my mistakes. So I was looking forward to it.Oden and Durant will always be connected, just as?Michael Jordan and Sam Bowie?were. Unfortunately for the Blazers, they were also involved in that selection in 1984 when they took Bowie No. 2 ahead of Jordan.Although Durant believes it is unfair to compare his career to Odens, he has come to the realization that they will probably be forever connected for various reasons.I think were always going to be linked together as far as our draft class, Durant said. That was [one of the first years] that you had to go to college for a year. So I think that played a part in how big that draft was. We were [one of] the first real one-and-done [classes]. He would have come out of high school; I probably would have done the same, but we had to go to college and we were one-and-done. I think that played a huge part in it, and just the fact that two freshmen went back-to-back 1 and 2 picks, that was a huge part. So were always going to be linked together no matter what. Oshane Ximines Giants Jersey .com) - Manchester City midfielder David Silva is expected to miss the next four weeks because of a calf problem. Saquon Barkley Giants Jersey . 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LOUIS -- Lately, the Miami Marlins bullpen has been busy on days when Tom Koehler pitches.The right-hander allowed four runs over four innings in a 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night that ended Miamis four-game winning streak. Hes lasted four innings or fewer in three of his last four outings, and five innings in the other one.Location was the likely culprit against the Cardinals.You throw the ball in the middle of the plate with these kind of guys, youre going to get hurt, Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.Koehler (6-8) thought pitch sequence could have been a contributing factor, but noted he tried to throw an 0-2 fastball to Stephen Piscotty inside and it sailed over the plate and got stroked for a two-run double in St. Louis four-run third.Hes 1/3 with a 7.84 ERA against the Cardinals.Its just little things here and there and Ive just got to keep working at it, Koehler said. Its a long season and its been a little bit of a rough patch, but move on, keep throwing.Adam Wainwright tossed a three-hit shutout to keep rolling in July for St. Louis. Jhonny Peralta homered and Piscotty had two hits, a walk and two RBI.Wainwright (9-5) struck out five with two walks and didnt allow a hit until Adeiny Hechavarria doubled to open the sixth inning. The teams longtime ace received a standing ovation in the eighth before striking out for the fourth straight time, then retired the 2-3-4 hitters in order to end it.I think we have to give their guy obviously a lot of credit that we werent able to do anything with him, Mattingly said. Its not like we had second and third two or three times -- we were struggling to get guys on base.The 6-foot-7 right-hander is 3-0 with a 0.39 ERA in three starts this month. The shutout was the 10th of his career and first since Sept. 17, 2014, against the Brewers.Matt Adams hit an RBI single in the third, following Piscottys two-run double and an RRBI double by Randal Grichuk.dddddddddddd.After blowing two late leads in the series opener Friday night, St. Louis improved to 20-27 at home.The Cardinals were flawless on defense a night after committing at least three costly miscues, among them their major league-leading 69th error. Matt Holliday, shaky at first base in the opener, didnt play.The highlight for Miami was a pair of diving catches by right fielder Giancarlo Stanton, the first robbing Adams of a two-run double to end the first inning and the second denying Aledmys Diaz a hit in the fourth.Hechavarria made a strong stop at shortstop, snaring Yadier Molinas liner in the third.It could have very easily have been seven or eight (runs), Mattingly said. So we kind of stayed in the game, we just werent able to mount any charge at all.Miami (48-42) is a game ahead of St. Louis (47-43), with both chasing the second NL wild-card spot. The Marlins dropped back from a season-best seven games above .500.Ichiro Suzuki grounded out while pinch hitting in the eighth and remained at 2,991 major league hits.PREGAME HOOPLAThe Cardinals 2006 World Series title team was extremely well-represented in a pregame ceremony, with nearly everyone honored.TRAINERS ROOMMarlins: 1B Justin Bour (ankle) is likely to need a rehab assignment before returning. He was eligible to come off the DL on Saturday.Cardinals: RHP Jordan Walden (shoulder) has been throwing and will be examined by team doctors early next week. He hasnt pitched since April 2015.UP NEXTMarlins: LHP Adam Conley (6-5, 3.62 ERA) faces the Cardinals for the first time. Left-handed hitters have more success against him, .289 to .223 for right-handed hitters.Cardinals: Michael Wacha (5-7, 4.36) has been on the upswing, going 3-1 with a 3.00 ERA in his last six starts. ' ' '