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We continue to wrap out mind around the shocking news that Greg Oden has been lost for the season. Part of me wants to think this isn't all the shocking, there was at least some smoke around Greg's overall physical health, but not even Kevin Pritchard could have predicted this injury so soon. Most of all I just feel bad for the fans, even if that's not what they want to hear. Greg may come back strong, perhaps just as strong as Amare, but this puts even more pressure on the young, old man, to live up to Kevin Durant who will likely have a very strong rookie season. Looking around the Portland papers and blogs this morning I thought I'd share the general reaction.
Henry Abbott shared many thoughts last nights from a die-hard fan and journalists' perspective ...
"First of all, remember this: for you and me, the NBA is playland. Our entertainment. This might hurt YOU. But it's nothing, really. This is a blow to Greg Oden, who I have heard is really pretty down about the whole thing, as you'd expect. For us fans? This season will be surprisingly good. Just not as good as we had thought.John Canzano insists this isn't another Sam Bowie ...
Don't even talk to me about Sam Bowie.
Resist the urge, Blazer fans, to feel all sorry for yourselves. This is not a cursed franchise. This is a young and promising franchise. If you ever start to feel blue, read Mike Barrett. He's a human Blazer happy pill, and I thank him for it every day.
Dave at Blazers' Edge has the proper optimistic analogy ..."The Birdman feels for Greg Oden, like a lot of you.
That's my Friday column, in The Oregonian. And if you're getting sucked into all this ridiculous "SAM I AM" stuff going on across the country, maybe it's high time we all took a step back. The kid will play again. So I thought about this as I found myself at Pioneer Courthouse Square yesterday afternoon.... just who are we mourning, hand-wringing and fretting for here?I suspect ourselves. We're not mourning for Oden. He isn't Len Bias or Reggie Lewis or Hank Gathers."
"Blazer fans were like kids who had been promised a Ferrari for their sixteenth birthday. It was the stuff of dreams. We had gone to the showroom, picked out the color ... we even had a test drive. Then as the car was being delivered for our birthday party a big old dump truck backed over it ... from an overpass. It seems to me there are a couple responses here. One would be to lament, which is proper for a while but ultimately unsatisfying. The other would be to admit a few things: We were lucky to even get a Ferrari at 16. Most people can't even sniff at that chance. We're not any farther behind than anybody else. We're just farther behind what we dreamed would be. And we're all going to be 17 someday. There will be other birthdays. And Ferrari is not going out of business anytime soon. You don't give up driving and you don't give up hoping. Instead you drive an Oldsmobile for a year and enjoy it. You work, you save, and you say, 'That Ferrari is still going to be there at 17 and 18 and someday it's GOING to be mine.'"
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