In all honesty, what OKC had in the beginning was an extension of the Fab Five, only at the NBA level because of the fact Sam Presti and Clay Bennett were putting a pro team in what’s basically a college market. They knew their team needed a certain youth feel about it to connect it to this market.
Obviously, when Portland took Greg Oden it was a no brainer to take Kevin Durant, but to Presti’s credit the remaining picks to fill out OKC’s Fab Five were pretty spectacular for the most part. Jeff Green was selected in the same draft as Durant. Westbrook and Ibaka came a year later. Then, a year later when most were clamoring for OKC to pick either Ricky Rubio or Jerrod Bayless–Presti surprised everyone by taking James Harden. And even more to Presti’s draft savant status—he was smart enough to see in Reggie Jackson what could be a hedge to eventually losing Harden.
In essense, I call them the Super Six who are now three…Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka. Jeff Green it seems has been with every team in the league at one point now. Harden is with a mess of a team in Houston currently. While Reggie Jackson lives the life of a minimalist starting point guard for the upstart Detroit Pistons.
Just think what these guys could have become in another era without social media when championships drove what a player did rather than following dollars.