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Nothing Micro Here: Analzying How Greg Oden’s Knee Injury Hurts Portland Trail Blazers & Entire NBASeptember 13 07 Disaster. Worst case scenario. The Sam Bowie curse strikes again. These are some of the ways Portland Trail Blazer fans are describing Greg Oden’s injury. The others I can’t repeat. In case you missed it: today, the Blazers announced that Oden, the first pick in last June’s draft, will miss the entire season with a microfracture knee injury. Oden’s injury doesn’t just hurt The waiting turned to anticipation after he balled for Ohio State last year. All the tools were there. And he was officially declared the next great center. You know the lineage: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, and then Greg Oden. That was the plan, until today. A microfracture is tough. It took Amare Stoudemire, one of the NBA’s great athletes, two years to return to peak form. Others, however, haven’t been so lucky. Chris Webber and Kenyon Martin have never fully healed from their microfracture injuries. So Oden faces a long, difficult recovery and he may never be the same. The Blazers still have some nice young talent. However, Oden’s injury leaves them with a massive hole at center. This is compounded by their decision to trade post Zach Randolph to the New York Knicks. The coming year won’t be easy in ’ Oden was supposed to help restore the NBA. His play and personality appealed to both casual and die hard fans. This is another tough break for a league looking to recover from poor ratings and the Tim Donaghy scandal. Before the draft, CNNSI reported that teams had concerns about Oden’s health. I’m not a doctor, so I can’t say whether the Blazers’ medical staff missed something. However, I know the franchise did their due diligence and research on both Oden and Durant’s health. There’s no easy way to sum up this story. Hopefully, in a few years, Oden replaces words like disaster, worst case scenario, and the curse of Sam Bowie with comeback, will-power, and he’s looking like Amare Stoudemire. But the key word is hopefully. What do you think of Oden’s injury? Get at us in the comment box below with your thoughts. Click here to read and subscribe to Oly Sandor’s NBA Blog. |
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