Suicide Watch in Effect for City of Portland

My NFL playoff predictions article will be cancelled simply because I don't feel like writing anymore NFL preview articles. I have the Baltimore Ravens over the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl. The following article is set to appear in my school's newspaper.

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 Need to Sulk, Memphis and Boston

The 2007 NBA Draft Lottery produced some shocking results as the Portland Trailblazers and Seattle Supersonics received the prized #1 and #2 picks giving them the opportunity to draft Ohio State center, Greg Oden, and Texas small forward, Kevin Durant. It was believed that the Memphis Grizzlies and the Boston Celtics would take home the prizes because they had the highest chance of winning the lottery due to their terrible seasons. The Portland Trailblazers in fact, had a 5.3% chance of winning the draft, very small compared to Memphis’ 25% chance.

After the results were announced, mass trauma spread through Memphis and Boston as many complained the system was not fair. Fear of setting the franchises back for more than ten years were being speculated if the teams were not able to select either Oden or Durant. Now that they will not get that opportunity, fans feel as if the messiah had come down from the heavens as they overslept and missed the event. However, Grizzles and Celtics fans need to calm down; this isn’t the end of the world, and it isn’t the end for your franchises. Welcome to the era of freshmen phenoms.

This is only the second year of the newly implemented rule by NBA commissioner David Stern stating that graduating high school players can no longer enter the draft. These seniors are forced to wait one year where they can attend college for one year and then be allowed to enter the NBA Draft. This has brought a new generation of basketball where high school players will be much more hyped than they were prior to the rule. Some players do not need the extra attention such as Lebron James or Greg Oden; these guys are exceptions to the rule. The rest can use the hype which will only make basketball better in both the NCAA and the NBA. I guarantee you that Kevin Durant would not have been hyped this much let alone be drafted in the top five if he come into the league straight out of high school. Also, think about the media coverage surrounding Dwight Howard for example if he attended one year of college. Howard was selected #1 overall by the Orlando Magic but he did not have nearly the amount of attention he could have received if he had attended college.

It would also do justice for the high school phenoms that were overlooked by many teams including such players as Amare Stoudemire (Drafted 9th overall after such players as Jay Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Drew Gooden, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Dejuan Wagner, Nene, and Chris Wilcox), Tracy McGrady (Drafted 9th overall after such players as Keith Van Horn, Tony Battie, Antonio Daniels, Ron Mercer and Adonal Foyle), Kevin Garnett (Drafted 5th overall after Joe Smith, Antonio McDyess, Jerry Stackhouse, and Rasheed Wallace), Kobe Bryant (Drafted 13th overall after such players as Kerry Kittles, Lorenzen Wright, Samaki Walker, Todd Fuller and Vital Potapenko), and Jermaine O’Neal (Drafted 17th overall in the same year as Bryant). There would be no question that these guys would be one of the top five draft picks in their years if they had attended college.

More recent players that came straight out of high school that have not received the attention they deserve are Andrew Bynum (Drafted 10th overall), Monta Ellis (Drafted 40th overall; he won the 2007 Most Improved Player Award), Gerald Green (Drafted 18th overall), Al Jefferson (Drafted 15th overall), Josh Smith (Drafted 17th overall), J.R. Smith (Drafted 18th overall), and Shaun Livingston (Drafted 4th overall). Too early to figure out whether these guys are busts, if they had attended college, they would have a lot more attention allowing fans to get excited over these guys which would only sell more tickets. The new rule placed by the NBA allows for this to take place.

Back to the misfortune of the Grizzlies and Celtics, these teams will get plenty more opportunities to pick up potential upcoming all-stars. With the attention surrounding Oden and Durant, many are forgetting next year’s 1-2 draft picks, guard O.J. Mayo and forward Michael Beasley. These guys will receive just as much attention as Oden and Durant and if next year’s worst team gets unlucky in the lottery, they will be experiencing exactly the same pain Grizzlies and Celtics fans are experiencing right now. We should get used to the NBA Draft becoming a huge event from now on because opportunities to pick up franchise players will come more regularly.

Source: Basketball-Reference.com

Sports Moment of the Week

The Robert Horry shove to Steve Nash that affected the Suns more negatively than it did the Spurs causing the Suns to early an elimination, 4-2.