It's been 15 years since 2007, and looking back on that year's draft, uh... This once again evokes the sad past of Blazers fans...
Market Leader, an extremely well-known simulation website in the United States, simulated the results of the 2007 draft trailblazers selecting Durant and supersonics selecting Auden, which caused a hot discussion in the United States.
With the end of the NBA Finals in the past few weeks, the draft has become the hottest topic in the NBA, and I'm pretty sure that when reviewing past drafts, we can't make decisions based on the scouting report of the year or the analysis at the time, and there are two reasons why we can't treat the Blazers from a rational perspective about not choosing Durant.
First, trail Blazers fans went through one of the hardest times in the league, they went through a serious injury to Bill Wharton, then selected Sam Bowie instead of Jordan in the draft, they welcomed Roy and watched him fall with the injury, their team is 45 years old, but they have never touched a championship and have not made it to the finals in 30 years.
Secondly, we are going to talk about Auden in this article, a person who is lonely and frustrated in reality and has completed his rebirth.
Remember a video from a few months ago? At that time, a fan pretended to be stupid and mocked Wei Shao, and the latter's glare made the fans afraid. We have to say that the players are not animals, they all have feelings. Sporting careers are only a part of their lives, we only applaud the good performance of the players, and when they leave the NBA, we don't remember them for long.
Greg Auden's story is the best proof of that.
Recall that before Auden was chosen, he was almost the only candidate for the title, but when he slipped down and couldn't continue to play because of his injury, people were moving away from him, which is something we all know, this is the cruel adult world.
Until you prove yourself, no matter where you shout about energy savings and emission reductions for people's futures, wear a funky T-shirt, or get a very transcribed hairstyle, no one will pay any attention to you. As long as you fail or become obscure, you are in such a situation. The best example of this is Auden, who is known only for squandering his talents and is always getting hurt, and no one cares what happens to him.
In a 2019 interview, Auden said he was happy. He became a father, he was passionate about being a good dad, he was trying to move forward and hopefully he wanted to be a coach. He is open to past events, which is a development with love. Here is a long excerpt from that unpublished interview.
Q: When did injuries start bothering you? What did you think at the time? Like "things are always not as smooth as you think"?
When I fell in the Blazers, I knew myself in my head
I was going to have surgery, and eventually my knee was operated on three times in a row, which had a big mental impact on me, and I could only think, "This year, I will come back." "Then slowly recovering, and then being forced to have surgery again and again, it was a big shock to me at that time.
Growing up was like that, basketball was the same, he was an integral part of my life, and I really lost the direction of my life. After three years of injuries in three years, I always think, "Can I really carry it?" Who am I? Where am I? "As basketball eroded little by little, I started to find life outside of the basketball world really difficult. In such a situation, the world is full of pressure, I also feel a lot of pressure, in addition to basketball, I am also putting pressure on myself all the time. I was in Portland, where I loved basketball, I was a kid from Indiana, and I knew I wanted to take control of everything in the basketball world, so I was under pressure.
Q: So you started drinking alcohol for this?
I've been through so many injuries, and I've been going through this process over and over again, I want to drink and paralyze my body, numb my heart, and try to escape the time.
I think when I start drinking non-stop, the world will slow down and mentally think," drink and drink! Drinking alcohol won't hurt your body! Drink it! ”
Q: Who helped you change your mindset?
I have friends, I have my cousin [Christopher Cortland], who eventually died of cancer quickly. He's my favorite cousin. So it adds to my pain and it adds to my alcoholism because it's like, even if someone is out there [saying], "Hey Greg, you might want to slow down, you might want to put your mind on the game and the comeback," and you lose a family member, someone who has been in your whole life. At that time I really lost the direction of my life.
Q: How did you get back to your life trajectory?
After leaving the Heat in 2014, a lot of things happened. I got into trouble with domestic violence, the law made me realize I had to sober up, I had to get an AA grade to wake up, and eventually I was suspended for three years. In a legal sense, I started being a gentleman myself, and I needed to be a real and genuine man. Then my daughter was born, and I kept going until I needed to change, rather than going on a wrong path forever.
Q: Who do you want to be now?
I want to be a good father, to be a positive person, I want to help more people, I want to make more people find happiness.
When people think of Greg Auden, they think of him as a failed showman, of his failures, and of what he would have achieved if he hadn't been injured. Existence is the truth, and if you think about what you think, can you still change other people's ideas about me?
Honestly, when people mention Greg Auden, I want people to be happy or happy, and they can smile at my story. In the past, I always struggled with my own life, "Why is the world unfair to me?" Why can't I fulfill my wishes? "At that time, I was a negative person, and now I just want to bring the positive to the whole world. I just want the general public to feel happy and happy, isn't it better to have a smile on their face? That's where I'm headed.
Everyone's dreams are always different.
If Auden were the next Bill Russell, how would he be now? Will he also be in a dilemma? He will certainly also be distressed about his next step, completing a story of transformation from a hero to an ordinary person in a limited time.
The transformation from gods to mortals can be without a prelude. That's why I love Greg Auden, who didn't choose to sink in the abyss but kept going. While gazing into the abyss, the abyss is also staring at you, and I hope that Auden's story will inspire you as well.