Perkins suggested that the Thunder team, which consisted of rising stars such as Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, was actually led by the veteran tandem of himself and Nick Collison.

Nick Collison unrolls a shot over UT’s Brad Buckman. Both Texas and Kansas reached the Final Four that season, and both teams lost to national champion Syracuse, Texas in the semifinals ...

"I had promised Nick Collison, who is a freshman, that I would be there because a rival school had said, 'If you go to Kansas, Roy Williams is not going to be your coach. He's going to go back to ...