Kevin Durant, former Texas Longhorn basketball player and one of the top prospects in the upcoming NBA draft, supposedly couldn’t bench press 185 pounds at the recent NBA pre-draft camp. Durant ranked 78th out of 80 players at the pre-draft camp, and as a result some people are questioning whether this phenom has the strength to excel in the NBA.

The most ridiculous aspect of this story is that anybody even cares what a 6’ 10”, 190-pound college freshman basketball player bench presses. To have seen him play and to question his “strength” based on the out-dated and insignificant bench press test is ignorance of the highest order.

To classify Durant’s performance as “poor” is asinine.

According to the report as posted on ESPN.com, Ohio State’s Greg Oden did better than Durant in the meaningless bench press, was about a half of a second faster in an agility drill and was less than two tenths of a second faster in a three-quarter of the court sprint. Once again, a big “so what?” should emanate from the crowd. Basketball, like all sports, is a game that’s played on a court and games aren’t won or lost by virtue of who is faster in a timed sprint or drill, or by who can bench press the most.

Texas head coach Rick Barnes said it best. "If people question his strength, they're stupid. If they (the NBA) are looking for weight lifters to come out of Texas, that's not what we're producing. There are a lot of guys who can bench press 300 pounds in the NBA who couldn't play dead in a cowboy movie. Kevin's the best player in the draft — period, at any position."

Amen, Coach Barnes. Many of the strength programs implemented by the major colleges and universities have moved away from the bench press in recent years, especially in sports like hoops, because it's indicative/predictative of absolutely nothing that matters in sports. The pro game has always been behind the curve when it comes to strength and conditioning, and the Durant story illustrates this knowledge gap.

If anyone wants to find fault with the 18-year-old NBA rookie-to-be, it can be said that perhaps Durant didn’t prepare as hard as he should have for this camp. But I think that’s even a little harsh, especially when we’re talking about an 18-year-old basketball player.