In case we needed another reason to love Kevin Durant, the phenomenal freshman from Texas obliged by exposing the NBA combine for what it is: a complete farce.

Durant, projected to go second in the draft behind Ohio State’s Greg Oden, finished just a shade lower than that in the overall Orlando combine ranking system. He finished third. From the bottom. Out of 80 players evaluated.

By the way, all 80 players measured taller in shoes than in bare feet, though some were two inches taller, others three-quarters of an inch. Perhaps the NBA should launch an investigation into whether prospects are stuffing their sneakers.

All the players in Orlando, even those who did not participate in games, were measured in 11 categories: height without shoes, height with shoes, weight, wingspan, standing reach, body fat percentage, no-step vertical jump, maximum vertical jump, number of 185-pound bench presses, lane agility and three-quarter-court sprint. Draftexpress.com released the measurements Tuesday.

News flash: Julian Wright has long arms. Wright has a 7-foot-21â4 wingspan. He’s 6-61â2 without shoes, 6-81â2 with them. No official word yet on whether Wright plans to wear sneakers in the NBA or risk shredding his ankles playing barefoot.

Overall, Wright ranked 66th among the 80 prospects, which is either cause for concern or jubilation, depending on whether he compares himself to Marquette guard Dominic James, who ranked third and might not get drafted, or to Durant, who had four 37-point outbursts in Big 12 road games.

Suggestion for NBA hopefuls desirous of a strong combine: Be born to a father who was a famous athlete. Maryland’s D.J. Strawberry, son of notorious slugger Darryl Strawberry, ranked first. Mike Conley Jr., whose father was an Olympic triple-jumper, was fourth.

More useful information was revealed about Oregon point guard prospect Aaron Brooks. Now that the players have been measured, it is known that Brooks is not fat. What a relief that must be to him and his agent. Brooks had the lowest body fat percentage at 2.7. The not-fat conclusion was confirmed by the scale, which weighed Brooks at 161 pounds, again the lowest among the 80 players who served as lab rats to fulfill the fantasies of whatever NFL wannabe came up with the idea of measuring basketball players in every category except playing ability and basketball IQ.

Remember Caleb Green of Oral Roberts? His body fat was on the high side at 10.9 percent. None of that fat must be weighing down his eyelids. His eyes were open enough to get the ball to the open man at just the right instant in Allen Fieldhouse over and over.

A look back at last year’s combine shows Brandon Roy out of the University of Washington ranked 30th. North Carolina’s David Noel was No. 1. Roy averaged 16.8 points and earned NBA Rookie of the Year honors for Portland. Noel averaged 2.7 points for Milwaukee.

The scouting combine has its place in the NFL, though performance remains a more important evaluation tool. The combine has its place in the NBA, too. That place is in the history books, right next to the picture of tall guys wearing short shorts.