For Collison and Ridnour, the path from top draft picks to key contributors for the Sonics was anything but smooth. Within their first four months in the NBA, both players had been sidelined by serious injuries.

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Ridnour's injury predated his selection by the Sonics. During a workout with the Milwaukee Bucks, Ridnour strained his abdominal muscle and suffered an avulsion fracture of his pelvic bone, limiting him in his subsequent workouts and sidelining him for summer-league play. Workouts after summer league aggravated the injury and forced Ridnour to undergo surgery.

Just as Ridnour was preparing to return to the court, Collison was injured. Expected to contend for the starting spot at power forward as a rookie, Collison suffered a subluxation of his left shoulder during his second day of practice with the Sonics. When the injury recurred subsequently during training camp, Collison was sidelined. Specialists recommended surgery not only on the left shoulder but also a preventative surgery to tighten Collison's right shoulder, meaning his season was over.

"I’ve wanted to play in the league since I was eight or nine," said Collison at a press conference to announce the surgeries. "I thought I was there, and now I can’t play. I realize there are worse situations you can be in, but I’m definitely disappointed."

Sund found his first-round pick second-guessed, but he maintained his faith in Collison.

"Somebody asked me a question the first year - in a derogatory way - 'How can you draft a guy and he ends up having shoulder surgery?'" says Sund. "I said at the time and I meant it, whether Nick was going to be successful or not, 'If we would have known in June, the day of the draft, we would have taken him anyway. It wouldn't have made any difference.'"

After both players were sidelined for a couple of weeks, Ridnour made his Sonics debut late in the preseason. He quickly made an impression, scoring 12 points and handing out 12 assists in just 23 minutes of action in the Sonics preseason finale against the Golden State Warriors. Expected to spend most of his first season watching and learning behind veteran point guards Brent Barry and Daniels, Ridnour forced his way into the Sonics rotation with his performance.

Eventually, Ridnour would have an up-and-down rookie campaign. He started six times - the Sonics winning four of those games - but also saw no action by coach's decision in 13 games. He finished with averages of 5.5 points and 2.4 assists per game, but also served notice of his potential with several big performances, notably a 16-point, 13-assist effort on April 10 in a 119-99 win over the Dallas Mavericks and All-Star point guard Steve Nash.

Ridnour's rookie season was up-and-down, but ultimately proved a useful learning experience. Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty

Still, it was a tough year for Ridnour, in part because of his inconsistent role and more because the Sonics finished 37-45, missing the playoffs. It was an unfamiliar experience for both Collison and Ridnour, who had experienced success throughout their high school and NCAA careers. All they went through, along with their shared experiences, caused Collison and Ridnour to rely on each other.

"The funny thing is, when we got drafted, I was hurt and he was playing," says Ridnour. "Then like a month later, he was hurt and I was playing. We both already went through that stuff too, so we helped each other through that. We came in together, and that's the guy you know. We've definitely been good for each other, helping each other out."

Given their similar backgrounds - both Collison and Ridnour grew up in small towns as the sons of high-school basketball coaches - it seems almost inevitable that they would become friends. Though Kansas and Oregon met twice during their college careers, Collison and Ridnour first really met each other before the draft, when they worked out together in Phoenix. It was only after being drafted that they had the chance to sit down and build a relationship.

"As rookies, we had to go to Rookie Transition program and then we had to come in here for all the individual workouts and stuff," says Collison. "You already have someone you know going into it, and you're both in the same position and don’t' know what to expect, so you kind of hang out together. Then the fact that we got along well anyway, I think it was kind of inevitable we would become friends."

The two Sonics live near each other and have become friends outside of the locker room.

"I think we're pretty tight," says Ridnour. "We do a lot of stuff together off the court and we live by each other. We've got a lot of similarities, that's for sure."

"We hang out some, but not every day or anything like that," says Collison. "Summers we probably do more often than the season. We'd usually work out in the morning, and then sometimes we'd get together and do something. A lot of times, we kind of go our separate ways, I guess. He's married now, so he's got his own life and his own friends and stuff from the area."

The center of Collison's and Ridnour's relationship has been their shared work ethic and the voluntary workouts they put themselves through during the off-season. Stories about Collison and Ridnour are almost legendary in the Sonics front office. Sund offers one such story.

Collison missed his entire rookie season after undergoing surgery on both shoulders. Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty

"July 4, they're in here early in the morning," he recalls. "Now I'm here, obviously, because of free agency. It's a holiday. They're in in the morning, doing their workout. Six o'clock, I'm still at the office, all of a sudden, the lights go on, I hear balls bouncing, and there they are. They had worked out in the morning, went out on the lake - they both have their boats - and then come back.

"I went down and said, 'What are you guys doing? This is a holiday. Go home.' They said, 'We wanted to get some shots up and work and then we're going to go out and watch the fireworks somewhere.' I thought to myself, there's not another guy in the NBA who came out and worked in the morning on the 4th of July and then came back at night and worked out again."

Sund has been in the NBA his entire adult life, and he hasn't seen many players as dedicated as Collison and Ridnour.

"I thought to myself, there's not another guy in the NBA who came out and worked in the morning on the 4th of July and then came back at night and worked out again."

"Both players, to me, are obsessed - and this is a good quality," says Sund. "I've been in it a long time, 30 years, and these two guys are obsessed with it. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to make it, but if they don't become great players, it's not going to be because they didn't make every possible effort. I can't believe how hard they work

"A city like Seattle, they love those type of athletes, and they epitomize it."

Work ethic became particularly important for Collison and Ridnour in the wake of their early injuries. Both players threw themselves into rehab with as much single-mindedness as they approach improving their game when healthy. They spent countless hours in the weight room in addition to the time they usually spend on the court working on their games.

"They worked hard on the rehabilitation for both of their different injuries," says Pendergraft. "Their work ethic is impeccable, whether it's Nick tightening his shoulder through the weights or improving his free-throw percentage, his range. Same with Luke rehabilitating his abdominal strain.

"If you're a worker, you're going to work at whatever task is at hand."