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Greg Oden Injured Again
The Portland Trailblazers have made some of the worst draft choices in the history of the NBA. Many make the argument that it all started in 1974 with Bill Walton as the 1st overall pick by the Blazers, but anyone with an ounce of knowledge would never refer to this pick as a bust. Yes, Bill Walton’s career did not span as long as Portland hoped for, but in his 4 seasons with the Blazers, Walton brought a championship to the city in 1977, was named MVP in 1978, and was named to all defensive teams in 1977 and 1978. I wouldn’t call that a bust. How about you?
Sam Bowie, number 2 pick (1984)–no question, one of the biggest busts ever. Not choosing Michael Jordan with the second overall pick in the 1984 draft–knowing what we know about Michael Jordan, we have to call this a terrible decision, even though Portland had good reason to pass on Jordan since they already had a pretty good shooting guard on their roster in Clyde Drexler. And now Greg Oden?
Blazers’ center Greg Oden broke his left kneecap in Saturday’s game against the Houston Rockets and will miss the remainder of this season. Oden’s career began in a delay as he was forced to sit out his entire rookie season due to microfracture surgery on his right knee. A bone chip in his left knee sidelined Oden once again last year for 14 games. It doesn’t take a genius to see the pattern in these injuries. Not only are these knee injuries, but they are very severe ones that a lot of players never come back from.
It is difficult for anyone to stay positive and optimistic in such a case. Greg Oden himself is having doubts as well, I’m sure. Of course, he will have the best doctors available to him in his recovery, but it will be a hard task to make a comeback and be productive once again. Certainly not dominant, but a very solid season this year with averages of 11.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks as a starter helped the organization and fans forget the career Kevin Durant has had thus far. The regret of choosing Oden over Durant with the first overall pick in 2007 will surely return once again to the city of Portland.
In an attempt to be optimistic, one could say Oden was lucky it wasn’t his right knee again that he injured, on which he already had major surgery. Then again, maybe this would have been better. Maybe he would have been better off injuring his already weaker knee than suffering such a serious injury to his good leg. One learns to play with a weaker knee or leg by being more careful and favoring one leg over the other. This is a difficult task with two bad knees. One can only hope that Greg Oden is an exception, and that he will be able to make a full recovery and resume his NBA career.
