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9/13/07

Greg Oden Will Miss NBA Season. Should Have Honked Twice!

NBA, Portland Trail Blazers

CriticalFanatic

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Wow.

Yahoo Sports has reported that Greg Oden is likely to miss the entire 2007-2008 season:

"Greg Oden , the Portland Trail Blazers' No. 1 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, will miss the 2007-2008 season after knee surgery on Thursday, two league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Oden, the 7-footer out of Ohio State, underwent exploratory surgery on his right knee on Thursday in Vancouver. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear, but Oden, one of the most celebrated young players in years, will be lost for the season.

The Blazers are expected to make an announcement shortly."

My first reaction, aside from utter shock, is to feel extremely bad for Portland fans. I've never seen a fan base, heck an entire community rejuvenate itself with the elation of a 19-year-old coming to town. At the NBA Summer League in Vegas, Trailblazer fans came in masses with Greg Oden jerseys just to root him on in a meaningless game.

The reports on radio detail that Oden has undergone micro-fracture surgery. I'm sure we'll learn more by the end of the day.

I expressed some concern in the days before the draft about the fact that Greg has one leg much longer than the other. Any athlete at this peak level will have some back and knee problems with that unbalance. We don't know if this injury is directly related to that, but I suspect it might be

Trailblazer fans, are you still holding out hope (honk twice), or are you about to endure the second Sam Bowie?

UPDATE: Here's the Portland Trailblazers statement:

"Greg had an arthroscopy and a micro fracture surgery today," said team physician Dr. Don Roberts, who preformed the surgery. "He was found to have articular cartilage damage in his right knee. The area of injury was not large and we were able to treat it with micro fracture, which stimulates the growth of cartilage. There are things about this that are positive for Greg. First of all he is young. The area where the damage was is small and the rest of his knee looked normal. All those are good signs for a complete recovery from micro fracture surgery."

"Certainly this is a setback, but our future is still incredibly bright," said Trail Blazers General Manager Kevin Pritchard. "Is it disappointing? Yes. However, this is a great core of talent and players of strong character and will continue to be."

"We know this discouraging news for all of our fans, however, the people of Portland are very enthusiastic and compassionate about their Trail Blazers and I know they will stand behind Greg and the team during his recovery," said Trail Blazers President Larry Miller. "We believe our fans and sponsors are going to continue to support us because they know we’re headed in the right direction."

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9/13/07

Anthonyg7575

5	With as old as he looks, I'm suprised it wasn't a broken hip.

9/13/07

Jon

0	Wow. That's terrible news for Portland. I haven't gotten around to posting the photos I took there a couple of weeks ago, but they had a giant Oden jersey on the arena, as well as one of the biggest ads I've ever seen, a giant banner covering a factory/silo across the street.

9/13/07

Jubanator14

1	First Bill Walton and his bad knees, even though they got a title out of him. Then the whole Sam Bowie is a bust while Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon win multiple titles and are regarded as best ever and one of the best Centers ever respectively. Then the whole Jail-Blazers phase. And now this, I feel really bad for the entire city of Portland.

9/13/07

Scott

GM Kevin Pritchard took a risk by selecting Oden over Durant with the first overall pick, even after several NBA clubs were concerned after noticing some things during Oden's pre-draft physicals. Hindsight is 20/20, but no doubt Pritchard will take the heat and Trail Blazer fans will come out from everywhere to say I told you so. It's a tough break, hopefully Oden can come back in a year or so and be productive like Amare Stoudamire has been

9/13/07

Jon

2	Microfracture? Oh no. Hopefully his recovery will have the same result as Amare's has so far, but it will be a long road back.

9/13/07

kantwistaye

0	(Edited by kantwistaye) Wow. I thought everyone was overreacting to the news of him having knee surgery, but apparently they were right. This is horrible. I hate it for Greg, I hate for the Portland fans, and I hate it for the NBA. Disappointing.

9/13/07

kantwistaye

0	Jon wrote: Microfracture? Oh no. Hopefully his recovery will have the same result as Amare's has so far, but it will be a long road back. My same thoughts when I read that. Wasn't it just supposed to be a simple knee scope?

9/13/07

CriticalFanatic

kantwistaye wrote:

Wow. I thought everyone was overreacting to the news of him having knee surgery, but apparently they were right. This is horrible. I hate it for Greg, I hate for the Portland fans, and I hate it for the NBA. Disappointing.

Mostly, I'm bummed for Blazers fans. But I'm bummed for the NBA in general. This is the most excited I've been (cliche, yes) for an NBA season in my life. The intrigue of these young players, KG in Boston, Golden State and Phoenix still running, hating the Spurs ...

There's still plenty to be excited about, but watching Oden was right at the top.

9/13/07

CriticalFanatic

1	On the bright side, think about the Blazers adding another lottery pick! (glass is half, glass if half, glass is empty I just drank it, can I have another ...)

9/13/07

MrNFL

1	(Stephen A. Voice) GREG ODEN IS GONNA BE A BUST!

9/13/07

suss

0	Blazers fans did honk twice - the GM insinuated that they really, really wanted Oden

9/13/07

Chris

1	Jon wrote: Microfracture? Oh no. Hopefully his recovery will have the same result as Amare's has so far, but it will be a long road back. yeah... no title to Portland anytime soon. Blazer homer fans just dropped their jaws... only a matter of time before the tears follow.

9/13/07

Chris

1	CriticalFanatic wrote: On the bright side, think about the Blazers adding another lottery pick! (glass is half, glass if half, glass is empty I just drank it, can I have another ...) if they get lucky again and nail a top fiver... i'll be pissed off! LOL!

9/13/07

Janse

I tried several times thinking on how to start this comment and I don't have words to do so. I look at the Blazers and they are still a talented team with out Oden, but he was that next step to push Portland into the race in the constantly growing Western conference. Oden is no doubt an enormous lost, but he wasn't the only piece that was added this off-season. As my playoff hopes pretty much go down the drain, I don't think this is a lottery team come when ever the hell the lottery is. May? I forgot.

9/13/07

Todd

(Edited by Todd)
Chris wrote:

if they get lucky again and nail a top fiver... i'll be pissed off! LOL!

Why would you be pissed? As a Spurs fan, you should already know that a team is not necessarily built off of the lottery. Tim Duncan was an obvious pick, but after that you guys built it off of deals and such.

If anything, Pat should feel a little redeemed by this news.

Good thing there's more to do in Oregon than sit at the bar and bawl.

9/13/07

Jon

2	Chris wrote: if they get lucky again and nail a top fiver... i'll be pissed off! LOL! If they did, there would be a pretty good parallel between them and how the Spurs ended up with Duncan (with Oden playing the injured Robinson role). Granted, unlike Robinson, Oden has proved nothing in the NBA, but his absence will certainly put the team down in the lottery like Robinson's did.

9/13/07

Chris

Jon wrote:

If they did, there would be a pretty good parallel between them and how the Spurs ended up with Duncan (with Oden playing the injured Robinson role). Granted, unlike Robinson, Oden has proved nothing in the NBA, but his absence will certainly put the team down in the lottery like Robinson's did.

i wouldn't say so. Robinson was drafted in 1989. He joined in 1991. He got injured in 1996-- however, did manage to play for 2 weeks. But also, a few other key players went down as well. Elliott went down most of the season, and of course the sprained ankle here and sore muscle there...

Spurs only have had two #1 picks in 18 years... probably the same with the lottery as well. Portland has been in the lottery for several years, and still haven't gone anywhere.

Spurs have won 4 championships, and aqcuired two hall-of-famers since 1989. I wouldn't quite call it parallel. However, this injury does put them in the posistion the Spurs were in during the 96 season... HOWEVER... Portland won't be as bad as the Sprus were, because they still have go-to guys like Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. They'll still put up 30-35 wins at least. San Antonio only won a disgusting 20 wins in 1996.... that was hell, yo.

9/13/07

Chris

Todd wrote:

If anything, Pat should feel a little redeemed by this news.

Good thing there's more to do in Oregon than sit at the bar and bawl.

That is true-- however, it is annoying for one team to suck up the "top" prospects of the NBA year in and year out. Not sure why Pat would be pleased about this news either... unless you mean if Boston ended up with the #1 pick.

9/13/07

Todd

0	Chris wrote: That is true-- however, it is annoying for one team to suck up the "top" prospects of the NBA year in and year out. Not sure why Pat would be pleased about this news either... unless you mean if Boston ended up with the #1 pick. I imagine that Boston fans are tickled that Oden is out, especially when they felt the no 1 pick belonged to them.

9/13/07

Chris

1	Todd wrote: I imagine that Boston fans are tickled that Oden is out, especially when they felt the no 1 pick belonged to them. oh i know... good thing Boston made their moves. It's funny to look back at it... people wanted to crap all over Danny Ainge's face... and now they'd kiss his ass for what he did... Boston is a dangerous East team... (notice i said EAST.)

9/13/07

Chris

0	MrNFL wrote: (Stephen A. Voice) GREG ODEN IS GONNA BE A BUST! Stephen A. Sock! Yeahhhh! I can picture that on the "Draft" video! LOL!

9/13/07

Chris

CriticalFanatic wrote:

i could have easily been a turd and PQed that for the "hating the Spurs" blip, but since i'm not a dick... i'll just reply with this.

Thats cold, yo. Owch. Yeah, i was looking forward to the Oden-Duncan, Oden-Shaq, Oden-Durant match-ups, but i guess we'll have to wait a year. HOWEVER-- we still have these to look forward too:

The Rockets-- Scola, McGrady, Ming, and Francis. Strong combo.
Durant sealing ROY Award.
The Boston Big 3-- should be fun to watch!
Mavericks-- will they finally fold, or rebound to get somewhere?
Suns-- getting hungrier... and now have the strongest championship calibur team.
Spurs-- Will the repeat year come, yo? is it 2008?
Possible GOOD Finals match-ups. The best would be San Antonio-Boston. For good reasons. 1 being the Duncan factor. 2 The match-ups are GREAT: Duncan vs. Garnett, Allen vs. Bowen, Tony Parker down the lanes, Paul Pierce... it has awesome written all over it.

9/13/07

Anthonyg7575

5	With as old as he looks, I'm suprised it wasn't a broken hip.

9/13/07

Flea_jm14

0	Truly SAD SAD news

9/13/07

Chris

0	Anthonyg7575 wrote: With as old as he looks, I'm suprised it wasn't a broken hip. lol! "I've fallen and i can't get up!" LifeAlert!

9/13/07

Flea_jm14

0	Chris wrote: lol! "I've fallen and i can't get up!" LifeAlert! I should give you poor quality for that

9/13/07

Chris

0	Flea_jm14 wrote: I should give you poor quality for that you've never seen those LifeAlert commercials? That's their slogan.

9/13/07

Amazin698607

2	Good to see he can still work on his game

9/13/07

Chris

0	Amazin698607 wrote: Good to see he can still work on his game whoa, hello... who is that on the right?

9/13/07

Flea_jm14

0	Chris wrote: you've never seen those LifeAlert commercials? That's their slogan. yeah, i've seen them. With the old lady.

9/13/07

shschill

0	Wow, I am loving the draft lottery now!!!

9/14/07

Isabel322

Say whatever you want. Greg Oden at 20 will be just as good. He's a child practically.

(He may not look it, I admit). I think Blazer Nation needs to get off suicide watch and enjoy the great bunch of young talent that we already have. As to winning it all, that wasn't happening this year with or without Oden. With Oden, I would have been happy to win 48 games. Without, my guess is 40. He's still a rookie, even a super talented one. He's still under contract. He hasn't gone away. Don't cry for us. We'll be just fine.

9/14/07

Flea_jm14

Isabel322 wrote:

Say whatever you want. Greg Oden at 20 will be just as good. He's a child practically.

The disappointing thing about this is all the hype and build up since the draft about watching him play for the team this year, and now it's not going to happen. I have no doubt that he'll be back and the blazers will have an ok season this year, but i was excited.

9/14/07

1	I honked once- every day on my way to school..... us Portlanders are very sad with this news. It's actually a conversation most of us can't stomach.

9/14/07

Isabel322

There are few Blazer fans that have been with the team as long as I have. I just feel like people are acting like someone died, and that is not the case. If you became a fan because of the Oden pick, well, welcome to the world of being a Blazer fan. It ain't always easy. Yes, it's disappointing. But we are not cursed as a franchise. S**t happens, big men get hurt, and then they rehab. Especially when they are 19 and crazy talented. Oden at 20 will be just as good. And the fans will love him even more because of the adversity he's gone through.

9/14/07

kantwistaye

(Edited by kantwistaye)
Isabel322 wrote:

The disappointing thing though is that it takes big men a year to get used to the NBA, and now he has to wait a year to do that. Plus while hes developing his game he has to be careful with his new. I think he'll be fine, but this is kind of scary, especially seeing how many teams apparently think hes injury prone. I hope for his sake that this is just a fluke.

9/18/07