The 2007 NBA Draft involved two names, Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. The lucky winner of the lottery would have there chance to select either future superstar; that lucky team was the Portland Trailblazers. On the night of June 28th, Portland decided to select center Greg Oden over small forward Kevin Durant simply because it is so hard to come by a 7-foot big man these days. Oden’s skill has been compared to the great Shaquille O’Neal since his high school days, and his likeability has been compared to… well… Shaquille O’Neal. The city of Portland was in heaven as a trio of young stars was set to dominant the NBA for the next 10-15 years. Greg Oden would take up the center role, 2006 2nd overall pick LaMarcus Aldridge would take up the power forward spot, and 2006 6th overall pick and NBA Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy would take up the shooting guard spot.The citizens of Portland’s dreams quickly turned into nightmares of past when it was announced that Oden underwent microfracture surgery after cartilage damage was found in the knee on September 13th, and as a result will most likely miss the entire 2007-2008 season. Portland’s heavenly dream ended abruptly as Oden’s fragile body betrayed him once again. While attended Ohio State University, Oden missed the first seven games of the season because of a wrist injury. He returned to the court with a brace and shot left-handed. Even with the brace, Oden’s dominance was felt throughout the college basketball world as he averaged 15.7 points per game, 9.6 rebounds per game, and 3.3 blocks per game. Now, this all doesn’t seem to matter as Oden will sit on the bench and watch his team get thrown into the lion den that is the Western Conference.
This feeling isn’t very new to Portland. The team that is known for making the biggest draft mistake in the history of the NBA, once again made their fans suffer in 1984 when they decided to draft Sam Bowie, a center out of the University of Kentucky over a young man named Michael Jordan out of the University of North Carolina. Sam Bowie was a 7’1” center that averaged 13.4 points per game, 8.8 rebounds per game, and 2.3 blocks per game in his five years at Kentucky. Why five years? Bowie missed two entire seasons due to leg injuries. Apparently this didn’t scare the Trailblazers too much into settling for Michael Jordan, and it was understood at the time. The previous year the Trailblazers selected shooting guard and hall-of-famer Clyde Drexler in the first round; the need for another shooting guard was unnecessary. The selection haunted Trailblazer fans for the next 14 years as Jordan went on to win six championships with the Chicago Bulls and Bowie managed to stay in Portland for a total of four years playing only 139 games out of a possible 328 games.
Perhaps Oden’s injury problems should have been taken into consideration more as 7-footer’s throughout history have had their fair share of run-in’s with injuries. To list a few examples, there’s Wilt Chamberlain (knee), Vlade Divac (back), Patrick Ewing (Achilles, wrist), Pau Gasol (foot), Dikembe Mutombo (wrist), Shaquille O’Neal (ankle, foot, and knee to name a few), David Robinson (back, foot, wrist), Arvydas Sabonis (Achilles, knee), Rik Smits (foot), and Yao Ming (foot). All of these guys have had injuries that have caused them to miss significant portions of a season; sometimes seasons where their team was favored to win the championship.
With Greg Oden not having played one NBA game yet, his future looks as grim as Sam Bowie’s. Portland fans are in grief as they read headlines and will go to games only to see Oden sitting on the bench sulking. Maybe this injury isn’t a big deal and Oden will comeback in the 2008-2009 season. Maybe he will dominate opposing teams with spectacular dunks and block shots with authority. Maybe he will lead his team to go on and win multiple championships the way Shaq has done. Maybe he will go down as one of the greatest centers of all time and get inducted into the hall-of-fame. But maybe, he doesn’t. Maybe his career with Portland is cut short as he is traded to another team willing to give him a second chance. Maybe Portland is haunted by another Sam Bowie. Worst of all, maybe Kevin Durant becomes the next Michael Jordan. Maybe the Portland Trailblazers’ history with bad luck never ends. Time will tell as citizens of Portland pray to see Greg Oden’s cheerful smile in front of cameras once again.
Sports Moment of the Week
The Denver Broncos had one of the greatest finishes to their game as they defeated the Buffalo Bills 15-14. Down 14-12 with no timeouts and 14 seconds left on the clock, the Broncos kicking team rushed out on the field and successfully kicked the field goal as time winded down. Normally it takes a kicking team 20 seconds to get setup for a field goal kick.
No comments:
Post a Comment