Greg Oden

Any other NBA fans on this board?

The news about Oden upsets me greatly. In any sport, you never want to see a potentially all-time great player's career threatened before he plays a game. And with microfracture surgery, there's certainly a chance that he will never become the player everyone expected him to be. Every NBA player who has had microfracture surgery -- Jamal Mashburn, Allan Houston, Jason Kidd, Chris Webber, Kenyon Martin -- has said the same thing: what you lose is your explosiveness. The surgery essentially ended Mashburn's and Houston's careers, Martin still isn't healthy, Webber has never been the same, and Kidd is still great but not quite like he used to be.

The one cause for hope is that the only other really great, young player to have the surgery (Amare Stoudemire) seems to be his old self. But it took almost two years...

 

He seems to be such a class kid. I hope he is able to fully recover.

 

I am a huge NBA fan. This is sad news for Oden. Microfracture surgery is no joke and nothing to take lightly at all. He will be out this season and I would expect him not to be fully ready to go and feeling good until around Christmas 2008. That is 15 months from right now.

The microfracture surgery is one that makes it more difficult to explode and be quick with jumping and such. Amare has come back but it took him quite a bit of time to find his form and even still, he cannot jump like he did before the surgery.

While Oden can jump relatively well and is quick for a big man, I do NOT see this surgery altering his game all that much if and when he heals from it. Not to say there will not be any lasting effects of it, but his game will be fine because he will still be tall, he will still be strong and he will still have his strong knowledge of the game which is evident in the way he plays defensive basketball and puts himself in great positions to block shots and rebound well.

I always like Durant better anyways, but I do feel bad for Oden and the Blazers.

As always I will be cheering for the Warriors and Bulls this season. Additionally, because of Durant I will pull for the Sonics this season too. They are going to be a giant suckfest though this season but that is fine by me. I am on board.

 

Thanks Nick for the thread. As a life-long Blazer fan (was a 4th grader in Lake Oswego when they won the title w/Walton) I'm utterly gutted by this. Hard to explain the love of the Blazers by the community unless you've been there (not a normal NBA town). The last 5+ years have seen the franchise hit rock bottom, destroy the public's trust (people view the team as a public entity ala the Green Bay Packers) w/the 'Jail Blazer' persona, and go from 800 straight sellouts to a half-full Rose Garden.

Finally the city was excited again w/the great draft they had last year, getting rid of all the bad apples, and hitting the 5% chance of winning the lottery.

Talked to a buddy last night who lives there and the town is absolutely sick. To go from the mundane 'arthoscopic' to the scary 'micro-fracture' surgery was shocking to everyone. To top it all their arch rivals up the 5 Freeway have Kevin Durant to rub salt in the wound.

 

Yeah I can't imagine being a Blazers fan right now. And I dunno, Tom, time will tell, but so much of what makes Oden great is the dynamic, explosive way he plays defense. If he's not dominant defensively when he returns, he'll be mostly just a big body. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not optimistic about his prospect of being the franchise center everyone thought he'd be.

 

That's a very good point, Don. He would have had to pay all his own medical bills and then wouldn't have gotten the millions that come with being a #1 overall pick.

I'm still sad for us. We potentially miss out on a great player.

 

Well, Don beat me to it again. Sorry for Blazer fans but as Don says at least Oden's got it all covered.

Apparently his 'maturity' in looks reflects his physiology.

I'd be sick if Oden had stayed at Ohio State, but then that brings up the question of whether Greg knew there was something seriously wrong, prior to declaring for the draft.

Maybe best unanswered.

However it should be noted that Oden adapted to using the other hand to shoot and was successful in a relatively short period of time. Giving fans hope the same will apply to how he plays on the court.