I was saddened last night by the news that Greg Oden was injured again and would miss this entire season after having microfracture surgery on his left knee on Friday. This will be his second round with microfracture surgery, after having it on his right knee before his rookie year. In between he cracked his kneecap and then fractured his left patella missing most of last season. He had played his only year at 'THE Ohio State' (WFT is that about?) shooting with his left hand after breaking his right wrist before the season had begun. After being the number one draft choice in the 2007 NBA draft, Oden has played 82 total games, the equivalent on one full season.
Why the hell do I care? Well, because I am a sap for high draft choices. I always want them to succeed. I started following drafts when I was about 16 years old. I remember sitting in the locker room at my high school and listened to the news at lunch time concerning the NHL draft (They played the radio at lunch time). For some Gawd awful reason the Philadelphia Flyers drafted Rick McCleish ahead of Bobby Clarke and Reggie Leach. Who the hell was Rick McCleish? I had never heard of him and Clarke and Leach were two of the greatest junior hockey players ever produced in the Western Junior Hockey League. I was hooked. From then on I followed every draft that I could. NHL, NBA, MLB and NFL. I don't care, I love mock drafts. I love reading about the players to be drafted. I have a collection of most drafts back to about 1970 in most of the sports. I occasionally look at them, evaluate the outcomes and think about what ifs (yes I am that big of a loser!). I still try to remember the players drafted in order from specific drafts. It helps me to sleep at night. To hell with counting sheep!
The first overall draft choice is someone who is always a marked man in his sport. How that player produces is something that will spark conversation and debate for many, many years. Just look at the amount of talk that has gone on through the years since the Portland Trailblazers drafted Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan in 1984. I'm still talking about, well at least electronically.
Oden's injury plagued career will always look much, much worse because Kevin Durrant was drafted second that year and at the age of twenty-two he is, in my opinion, the best player in the league. He is in fact everything that LBJ is not: humble, hard-working, without an entourage, and willing to stay in the place he was drafted (I have never heard him say he was 'all about winning'). The Portland Trailblazer fans must throw up every time they look in the papers and see that Durrant went for another 35 points in a victory, while Oden hobbles off to surgery again.
Of coarse I wrote yesterday about a certain top overall pick in the NBA that I don't care to follow but usually I love to follow young players with great potential. When Steven Stauburg was injured this fall while pitching for the Washington Senators, I was particularly disappointed. He had proven that in his short MLB career that he was going to be special. Now... who knows if he will ever return from elbow surgery. Some do, some don't. I have even started to watch the Oilers after over twenty years of disinterest, due to the fact that they are loaded with young talent. Taylor Hall reminds me so much of a combination of Mark Messier and Glen Anderson. How his talent and abilities will develop and progress is anyone's guess. That is what is great about youth, talent and drafts: the unknown. Maybe Taylor Hall will lead the Oilers back to the promise land. Greg Oden was supposed to lead Portland to a championship. With both knees totally screwed, that seems very unlikely.
I read on espn.com when Greg Oden was drafted that when he walked across the room, he walked like an 80 year old man. He had none of the grace and athleticism that most NBA basketball players possess. The writer said Kevin Durrant floated across the room while Oden shuffled. Maybe Portland should have given him the walking test before they drafted him.
Oh well who's next? There is always someone...
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