“Some guy 12 years older than me”: Kevin Durant’s sneaky joke about Greg Oden during the 2021 All Star Draft went unnoticed by Team LeBron and co

Kevin Durant had quite a few jokes up his sleeve during the 2021 All Star Draft, and he picked just the right moments for them last night.

The 2021 All-Star Game is the first edition in which LeBron James is a captain against KD. The two led the voting returns from their respective conferences, and are thus going up against each other.

James will be barely fit for the game, having sat out the Lakers’ last game against Sacramento. The Slim Reaper, on the other hand, has been completely ruled out with a niggling hamstring concern. KD was replaced by Domantas Sabonis on the All-Star ballot.

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There was a ton of banter between everyone involved in the Draft last night. Hosted by TNT, the show consisted of the Inside crew (Shaq was replaced by D-Wade) along with captains KD and LeBron joining virtually. KD’s best quip of the night possibly went unnoticed by many viewers.

Kevin Durant references Greg Oden’s old-man look with a well-time joke

The Inside crew began reminiscing about previous All-Star Drafts, when LeBron talked about picking KD first once. Ernie set up the entire moment with the perfect question.

Ernie: Hey Kevin, we’ve likened this in the past to the schoolyard where we would be picking guys. Were you always the 1st pick?

KD: Yeah, either 1st or 2nd.

Kenny: If you were 2nd who went 1st?

KD: Some guy like 12 years older than me.

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LeBron, for his part, made a great follow-up joke too: “Whoever was picked before Kevin Durant, you need to bring him to your Hall of Fame speech”. This was a direct joke at the expense of Michael Jordan, who brought the friend picked over him in varsity for his induction.

Greg Oden was incidentally the first pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. He was also placed first in his high school class as a McDonald’s All-American, ahead of Kevin Durant on both occasions.

Many people were shocked to get a first glimpse of Oden at Ohio State. He was built like a tank and if you didn’t know better, you could have mistaken him for a grown man in his 30s. Perhaps that was what KD was referring to when he said ‘some guy 12 years older’? We won’t know, but it’s humorous to think of it that way.