Links: Oden And Out
Hey Blazers fans, it’s OK to admit that your team just might be cursed.
Just two days ago, SLAM managing editor Susan Price sent out an email to all of us who write for SLAM asking for our annual “Rookies Most Likely To…” predictions. Those of you who are SLAM readers know of which I speak — it’s the annual mini-feature in which we take most uneducated guesses as to which NBA rookies will have the best rookie seasons.
The first category on the ballot was for Rookie Most Likely To Average 20 Points Per Game. Since we don’t have a category for the rook most likely to win the Rookie of the Year award, this category is the closest thing to it. Because let’s face it: If a rookie averages 20 points a game, he’ll probably win the Rookie of the Year anyway.
Without a second thought, I wrote down Kevin Durant. One reason is because Seattle lost pretty much all their good players, so who’s going to score the ball for the Sonics, Nick Collison? No, Durant’s going to take a lot of shots and score a lot of points this season. Greg Oden may have been drafted ahead of Durant, but Oden is not a dominant offensive presence and he likely never will be.
But more importantly, at least to me, is that I’m convinced Kevin Durant is going to be a better NBA player than Greg Oden. I wrote about this at length a few months ago, and one thing Durant said to me is still rattling around in my head: “I’m just cold-blooded. I really don’t care. Whoever’s in front of me, I’m going to do my best to destroy them.” Contrast that with Oden’s constant modesty and self-deprecation, and it’s hard not to believe Kevin Durant has a drive like nobody else.
HOWEVA, just because Durant is cold-blooded, does that mean Greg Oden will not be an NBA star? Of course not. He’s huge, he can run, he can jump…Greg Oden is going to be an amazing NBA player.
Just not as good as Kevin Durant.
And, as we learned yesterday, not anytime soon, either.
One thing that has been interesting for me to watch this summer has been following Henry Abbott over at True Hoop and his coverage of Oden’s arrival in Portland and the renaissance of the Blazers. The Blazers are Henry’s favorite team, and he has never claimed to be completely impartial in his coverage of the JailBlazers. (Whoops! Sorry, old habit there.)
Since yesterday’s bombshell, Henry’s been all Oden, all the time. Check his most recent posts…
Recent Updates
* Greg Oden is Not Sam Bowie
(9/14/2007 12:12PM)
* What Exactly Happened to Greg Oden’s Knee?
(9/13/2007 7:44PM)
* Grieving with Greg Oden
(9/13/2007 3:24PM)
* The Worst Case Scenario for Greg Oden
(9/13/2007 2:10PM)
But there was one thing Henry wrote in all those posts which caught my interest…
“Resist the urge, Blazer fans, to feel all sorry for yourselves. This is not a cursed franchise. This is a young and promising franchise.”
You know what? Hey Blazers fans? You should totally feel sorry for yourselves. Because until someone shows me otherwise, I’m pretty sure your franchise is indeed cursed. Things were chugging right along in the ’90s and the early part of the 2000s, and then everything fell apart. Since then, your players have been getting arrested, training dogs to fight, bringing guns on the team plane, running trains on women, and now your franchise savior—the guy you basically gave away your leading scorer and best trade chip to accommodate—is injured and may never be able to play with the same gusto again.
I’m sorry, Blazers fans, but these are the facts. Look, teams get cursed. I’m a Hawks fan, and we’re horribly cursed. The Celtics were cursed for a while there. The Lakers can’t seem to do anything right. And the Blazers are cursed, too. That’s just the way the ball bounces.
Also, I hate reading fans of certain teams complaining about their teams having bad luck. Celts and Lakers fans, for instance, are not allowed to whine about their teams not being able to get it together. Teams are supposed to have good times and bad times. Actually, it’s the bad times that make the good times so good. The Atlanta Hawks have not won an NBA Championship since 1958. So for the 6 remaining Hawks fans, it’s going to be a helluva championship celebration when we finally win that ring. (Probably not until 2058, at the rate things are going.) The Blazers have been a good team for a long time. It’s natural to hit a few bumps along the way.
The SLAM Dome was closed yesterday for Rosh Hashanah, a holiday of which I know nothing about. (I just had to call Sam to get the spelling right on that holiday.) Having nothing to do, I ended up sleeping late and then running around the city to take care of some errands. I got an email about the Oden thing to my Sidekick and immediately called Mutoni’s cell to get him to post something. He texted me back that he was posting something pronto. (Love the way the new media works, all wirelessly and stuff.)
By the time I got home and back in front of my computer, there were already about 50 comments. If you look there at 4:47 p.m., I wrote:
It’s too bad Portland’s never before drafted an injury-prone center over one of the best scorers in college basketball. Because then this injury would be sort of ironic.
A few comments later, Russ, contrarian that he is, took exception with my use of “injury prone,” writing: “He’s had TWO injuries in two years. A broken wrist and the knee. I don’t consider tonsillitis an ‘injury.’ My definition of injury prone is a guy like Allan Houston or Shawn Bradley–someone who consistently breaks down with a similar problem that never really goes away. GO seems to be more ‘accident prone’ than anything.”
I can agree with that, but at the same time, two major injuries in two years is pretty significant. I think we all can agree that whatever modifier you want to use, Greg Oden is definitely prone. Shoot, he’s more prone than Jenna Jameson.
And right now, the Blazers seem to be prone to bad luck.
Sorry, but them’s the breaks. Or the microfractures. Or whatever.
95 Responses to “Links: Oden And Out”
Sep.14 at 2:26 pm
Lang Whitaker says:
And I can’t tell you how close I came to photoshopping that picture so that the sign said, “Oh, my knee!”
Sep.14 at 2:29 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Didn’t a Blazer win Rookie of the Year last year? Some curse.
Sep.14 at 2:37 pm
thomas says:
doesn’t roy have some heel problem that won’t go away? Some curse. You should’ve edited that sign Lang!
Sep.14 at 2:37 pm
orteezy says:
ugh…well atleast the games wont be all sold out and filled with ppl that are bandwagoners…games are still fun. back when they had bassy and shareef i saw them win a couple close games…thats always fun still
Sep.14 at 2:40 pm
Ryan Jones says:
When a Hawks fan tells you your franchise is cursed, you know you’re f*cked.
Sep.14 at 2:41 pm
Rasheedionics says:
Brandon Roy won rookie of the year. Blazers didn’t win s**t…
Sep.14 at 2:44 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
And wait, didn’t the Blazers also get the FIRST OVERALL PICK IN THE DRAFT when they finished with the sixth or seventh worst record? If any team in the L is cursed right now it’s the damn Pacers.
Sep.14 at 2:46 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Team USA is cursed.
Sep.14 at 2:46 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
I’m also gonna go out on a limb here and say that the Blazers get to the Finals before the Hawks.
Sep.14 at 2:48 pm
Eoin says:
MAN that photoshopping would’ve been funny.You should’ve done it.Not classy, but hilarious.
Sep.14 at 2:54 pm
jbn74sb says:
“The Lakers can’t seem to do anything right.” Yeah, having the best coach and the best player in the league sure does suck. So does having a nice balance of young players and vetarans as well. Not to mention having 3 decent big men, one of whom was the youngest player in the league last year. Of course, missing the playoffs twice in the last 20 years and winning 8 titles in that time sucks too. Curses are a b*tch.
Sep.14 at 2:56 pm
jbn74sb says:
Last 30 years, not 20.
Sep.14 at 3:11 pm
white hot eboy says:
Bodie is too funny. Phil was the best coach in the league 5 years ago. His best days are over, unless he goes to a organization CURRENTLY, who can actually put his system to good use.
Sep.14 at 3:14 pm
SMK says:
Bitch, the Knicks just curse.
Sep.14 at 3:14 pm
Jake Appleman says:
If they can somehow manage to suck just enough to get Gordon, Mayo or Rose and Oden comes back at 90% of what he would have been, they’ll be fine. Cursed were the pre-Kidd Nets. Oden, Aldridge, Frye, Roy, Blake, Gordon/Rose/Mayo, Jack, Ghostface, Webster, Sergio Rodriguez, Travis Outlaw. That’s not half bad, even in the loaded western conference.
Sep.14 at 3:14 pm
bryan says:
Allan Houston injury prone…In his first 10 years in the league he missed no more than 6 games in a season 5 times playing every game in said seasons.Then he had a bum knee tried to play through it couldn’t and retired that doesn’t sound injury prone to me.
Sep.14 at 3:16 pm
riggs says:
man if being the youngest player in the league is an accomplishment ima make my son try out
Sep.14 at 3:19 pm
bryan says:
What ever happened to chuckaz?
Sep.14 at 3:19 pm
J says:
What defines a curse?
Horrible management?
Sep.14 at 3:21 pm
Dennard says:
The Hawks define a curse. Bad management, bad coaching, bad everything.
Sep.14 at 3:23 pm
bryan says:
The knicks are cursed. They haven’t won sh*t since the seventies.Patrick Ewing tries to finger roll , Charles Smith can’t hit a layup, John Starks can’t hit anything.All the while Ewing says “we’re the better team they just won” Which may be a curse or just karma for him talking smack.
Sep.14 at 3:23 pm
jbn74sb says:
Riggs you nitwit, it’s the combination of being young AND promising. Obviously if Bynum were 30 and stumbling around out there, we wouldn’t be too stoked on him.
Sep.14 at 3:28 pm
white hot eboy says:
Yeah Bodie, Bynum and promise go together like Bodie and Taurasi. Dummy.
Sep.14 at 3:29 pm
Dennard says:
Nobody has said anything about Lang writing about the Jailblazers “running trains on women.” I thought this was standard behavior for most pro athletes.
Sep.14 at 3:39 pm
jbn74sb says:
In less minutes, Bynum averaged 1.5 rpg less, and more blocks per game than Shaq, at 1/10 the cost. Plus he played all 82. If Shaq is the MDE (which he’s not), then yeah, Bynum has promise. BTW, I go with Taurasi like eboy and knowledge. In other words, not at all.
Sep.14 at 3:44 pm
Dennard says:
The Clippers are hands down the most cursed franchise in the NBA.
Sep.14 at 3:45 pm
white hot eboy says:
Bodie, here’s a bit of eboy knowledge you can chew on. Shaq PROMISED Heat fans a title. Guess what happened? You are definitly SLAM’s Stat Boy. You just need some hair and some paper ball throwing skills.
Sep.14 at 3:47 pm
jbn74sb says:
I don’t have to guess, eboy. I watched Dirk and Avery choke, watched Wade step up, and watched Zo play the 4th quarters, just like the $20,000,000 man who has been swept out of the playoffs 6 times in his career. The only difference is that I didn’t get paid to watch it, and my girl wouldn’t cheat on me with no personal trainer.
Sep.14 at 3:50 pm
white hot eboy says:
Oh, and my offer still stands. If you are the Ultimate Laker Fan, put up a nice friendly wager with me on what team has a better season. Come on Bodie, it’s eating you up. Do it. You can pull some stats on how often the Lakers have beaten the Heat in the years since the fat-ass left. Give me those figures if you can?
Sep.14 at 3:52 pm
white hot eboy says:
All those things are interesting, but with 4 rings and about $400,000,000, I wouldn’t give a sh*t what some bitter ex-fans thought either. Especially when I can have my pick of women by just flashing a few big heads. Isn’t that your MO, too?
Sep.14 at 4:00 pm
white hot eboy says:
Bodie, or make an exorbitant offer to buy Lang’s Ipod and have people actually enjoy being around you. I guess the long pause in comments means you’re getting statted up.
Sep.14 at 4:07 pm
Cheryl says:
Ooooh, Eboy. That was a good one. Can’t wait for Bodie’s comeback…
Sep.14 at 4:11 pm
white hot eboy says:
Cheryl, I miss seeing you (reading you). You and Co Co both have been MIA. You haven’t missed much though. Same eboy, same Bodie, same Izzo, same Ryan, same Russ, etc. etc. etc.
Sep.14 at 4:18 pm
Cheryl says:
I’ve been lurking, just been very busy at work so I can’t spend as much time here. I made myself a promise to post something to my blog this weekend. In fact, I’ve got two post ideas in mind. I still want to do the one on infidelity, cuz that was a really interesting discussion awhile ago. Bodie and Izzo got my mind racing!
Sep.14 at 4:19 pm
white hot eboy says:
Was that the one that went to the “dark place”?
Sep.14 at 4:23 pm
Cheryl says:
Yes.
Sep.14 at 4:25 pm
white hot eboy says:
Oh boy.
Sep.14 at 4:29 pm
Tarzan Cooper says:
a r.o.y. and kevin the dude led blazers would have been nice, but oh well. ………… waiting on bodie
Sep.14 at 4:39 pm
jbn74sb says:
Actually, eboy, my delay in commenting was due to this thing called lunch. I know Ryan skips, but I expected you to be familiar with it.
Sep.14 at 4:42 pm
white hot eboy says:
Dammit. I was hoping for a 8000 word response that I could have printed out and took a dump to. Anyways, I’m about out, so if you post and I don’t reply, it’s not for fear of your evil genius but I have reservations at 6:00p est and I have to pick up my little homeboy. Everybody enjoy the weekend.
Sep.14 at 4:45 pm
jbn74sb says:
Same eboy. And while I may be sipping (and swallowing) at the cup of the Lakers, I have no problem admitting that on paper the Heat currently have a better team. With the 5th highest payroll in the league, I would hope so. However, all things considered, in the real world, the Lakers had a better year last year, and that’s without even getting into performance compared to expectations.
Sep.14 at 4:47 pm
white hot eboy says:
I love Bodie’s loyalty. If only 24 had that trait. Bye!!!!!!!
Sep.14 at 4:50 pm
jbn74sb says:
Shaq’s has worn out his welcome in two states, for two organizations. Kobe has played for 1 team his entire career.
Sep.14 at 5:01 pm
JB21 says:
& Kobe hasn’t won ish w/o Shaq, but viceversa? & Payroll means nothing in the NBA.
Sep.14 at 5:07 pm
jbn74sb says:
JB21 - What time did your junior high get out today?
Sep.14 at 5:09 pm
Bo Diddly says:
Why does Lang think Durrant will be the better player? Because he said ‘I’m cold blooded’ etc etc?? I don’t give 2 flaming monkeys. Who is the most dominant player in the last 5 years in terms of winning? Tim Duncan. Would he be saying things like that? I rest my case. No wait, Tracy McGrady/Gilbert Arenas and many other such ‘confident/arrogant’ players have won diddly. Case closed
Sep.14 at 5:13 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
I hate the “x hasn’t won without y” argument. Most people wouldn’t hesitate to call Michael Jordan the best basketball player of all time, and he never won anything without Scottie Pippen. Magic Johnson never won a title without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Larry Bird never won a title without Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. Dr. J never won an NBA title without Moses Malone. Bill Russell never won a title without an entire wing of the Basketball Hall of Fame. So, please, for the love of God, enough of that argument.
Sep.14 at 5:16 pm
Myles Brown says:
Stop making sense.
Sep.14 at 5:29 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Also, player’s self-evaluations are always accurate. I mean, Stephon Marbury called himself “the best point guard in the game” once.
Sep.14 at 5:48 pm
Drolfe says:
More prone than Jenna Jameson is very good.
Sep.14 at 6:00 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Oden hasn’t won without Shaq.
Sep.14 at 6:00 pm
Lang Whitaker says:
I didn’t say Durant would win more, Bo. And actually, Duncan probably would say something like that, not that anyone would care. You don’t know Diddly.
Sep.14 at 6:04 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Duncan would say “I’m cold blooded. FIBA SUCKS!”
Sep.14 at 6:06 pm
Bo Diddly says:
He’d say it as a joke! I don’t think he would come out with that. But as you say I don’t know Diddly (but I do know Bo Diddly…?) I’d like to say I know he would/wouldn’t. He seems like a cool guy to me. You said Durrant will be the better player. But how should we judge who is better?? Is McGrady better than TD? Being American, surely winning is everything no?! Lol!! - let agitated responses commence”
Sep.14 at 6:09 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Russ, regarding “X hasn’t won without Y”, it IS lame that people try to find correlations and attribute it to causation. I’m just waiting for some stat nerd to make the “analysis” that teams win more when they wear their home jerseys … therefore, if they just wore their home jerseys on the road, they’d win more!
Sep.14 at 6:09 pm
Bo Diddly says:
FIBA sucks. lol, I hope the U.S. win gold at the next olympics…for all you guys sakes. NBA is 1 on 1 bball. Team bball rules! I’m a great team player (e.g. pass the ball..pass the ball! to someone that can score!) lol
Sep.14 at 6:10 pm
Tarzan Cooper says:
the t robot would say he’s cold-blooded…… at socom
Sep.14 at 6:14 pm
Bo Diddly says:
Duncan might say ‘I’m cold blooded’. but probably not ‘I’m gonna do my best to destroy them’. He’s a lover not a fighter surely?! We need to spread the word of peace. ; ) Anyway, sorry, this is mildly irrelevant.
Sep.14 at 6:19 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Bo Diddly, what you project as “Tim Duncan” is different than the real Tim Duncan. Let me guess - you also think that Steve Nash is a great guy, and Kobe is a jerk. I’m not saying I know, I’m saying I don’t know.
Sep.14 at 6:37 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Who do you love?
Sep.14 at 6:38 pm
Reggie Evans says:
You know who does know? Ryan Jones. But he’s not telling.
Sep.14 at 6:52 pm
Reggie Evans says:
By the way, there’s a great link to an Eddie Johnson Q&A on Hoopshype (saw it at Truehoop). He talks about how today’s players isolate themselves before a game: That’s really the only part I miss about the game when I played – the fun we had in the locker room. For instance, when I played with the Charlotte Hornets in 1993, we had a fashion show before each game. Players would actually wait for you to walk in the locker room so they could dissect what you were wearing. Alonzo Mourning, Larry Johnson, Muggsy Bogues and Johnny Newman wore a different outfit for 82 games. I often wondered why Muggsy Bogues had his suits tailored when he was only 5-5 and could have bought his wardrobe at Target. They would hang up the worse outfit of the night and debate about it before our team meeting before the game. I have never laughed so hard in my life. I got to know all of those players that year because they did not isolate themselves and that was special.
Sep.14 at 6:56 pm
Bo Diddly says:
Hey , Steve Nash, is a Spurs fan so that puts him a clear step above all the rest in the NBA in my book
Sep.14 at 6:58 pm
Bo Diddly says:
If u don’t know the name Berbatov, u surely should
Sep.14 at 7:09 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Reggie Evans = Mike Gminski?
Sep.14 at 7:17 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Dammit, Russ, you made me look up “Mike Gminski”. He’s a former Duke basketball player who likes cycling, wine, and gourmet. He calls himself “The G-Man”. And he looks like one of the guys on MADTv. I don’t get it.
Sep.14 at 7:18 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
He was also on the 1993 Charlotte Hornets. Keep up with your own tall tales, sheesh.
Sep.14 at 7:24 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Oh, I get it. No, the story was an excerpt from Eddie Johnson’s Q&A, not my words. Also, I’m not Gminski. Or Rappaport.
Sep.14 at 7:27 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Whoops. That’s what happens when you can’t see a colon. (Insert Dajuan Wagner joke here.)
Sep.14 at 7:34 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Dajuan, now THAT guy was a lock. He didn’t walk funny or anything.
Sep.14 at 7:39 pm
howard says:
The Hawks are not cursed, Lang. They just SUCK.
Sep.14 at 8:05 pm
Adrian says:
At least the Hawks have won a game in the playoffs…
Sep.14 at 9:39 pm
nothin _personal says:
I hope this won’t be the case for Oden like it was for Sabas. He was projected to be a 7′3″ Kirilenko with a shot and court vision, till his knees couldn’t hold the extra weight the Soviets forced him to take.
P.s. The really good highlights (1982-85) unfortunately were never recorded on tape. My father was one of the lucky few that watched him play live, back then. It’s a shmae he couldn’t be what he projected to be…
Sep.14 at 10:50 pm
Lew B. Money says:
women ran a train on me once. it was fun.
Sep.14 at 11:32 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Sabonis WAS what he was projected to be, just not in the NBA. By the time he got to the L he was like 56 years old.
Sep.15 at 12:35 am
Tarzan Cooper says:
apparently russ cant read either
Sep.15 at 3:32 am
sitngray42 says:
yo i just feel sory 4 GREG his rokkie of the year chances r gone
Sep.15 at 9:20 am
nick says:
Whatever…sabonis never won a USSR title without Rimas Kurtinaitis. Or something like that.
Sep.15 at 9:38 am
nothin _personal says:
no, he wasn’t. The youtube clips that I linked to. didn’t get through moderation. Just watch his 86 world championship Highlights, and remember that this was after gaining 40-50 pounds and a major surgery. Dude was amazing when he was 19.
Sep.15 at 9:43 am
nothin _personal says:
and while you are at it, check Nick Galis too. You’ll understand why he was a first class iductee in the newly born Fiba hall of fame. Along with Dean Smith, Bill Russell, and 17 others.
Sep.15 at 5:56 pm
Zachary Armstrong says:
Most people aren’t even talking about Oden’s injury. I mean this is a HUGE problem. If I were Kevin Prichard I would be devastated, theres no way I could sleep at night. [GET WELL ODEN]
Sep.15 at 6:18 pm
john says:
greg oden sign: pick me for the 08-09 season. get it, well done.
Sep.16 at 4:58 am
Heri says:
Mark my words: MJ would’t have won 6 rings if Sabonis had entered the L in 1986 injury free. Sabas and Drexler would have been way too much for any team to handle, Bulls included.
Sep.16 at 4:26 pm
Goody says:
Shoulda picked Yi. He be the man that no one knows about. He da real deal. Woulda been a better draw for Portland. Lotta Asian culture in Portland and Seattle. Yi shall see. He’s not a big lump, mobile, can shhot the three ball with ease, bang it on someone down low and he won’t need to be hidden or get picked on on the defensive end. Keep watching…
Sep.16 at 8:34 pm
Chris says:
I am pretty sure everyone that knows basketball has known about Yi for the past 3 years…I mean 7 foot tall asians don’t just happen everyday.
Sep.17 at 12:30 am
Paolo says:
I guess this means that no matter how funny Oden might have been during interviews, the joke is on him now. When they watch Durant, the Blazers will be a lot like Dumars everytime he sees Wade, Melo and Bosh. What a waste.
Sep.17 at 12:41 am
Ekam says:
i kno how trailblazers can still fill up arenas COME TO VANCOUVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sep.17 at 12:47 am
Ekam says:
lol blazers arent as cursed as the grizlies first the BIG COUNTRY bryant reeves pick was a major mess up and then they swiched cities well that means vancouvers cursed cas are hockey team has the best players but they aint getting anywhere
Sep.17 at 3:44 am
indi says:
the grizz weren’t cursed, just sodomized by stu jackson and regarding oden… amare.
Sep.17 at 6:01 pm
Tommy Patron says:
I loved watching Sabas play.
Sep.17 at 6:59 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Wait, did Greg Oden just get (indirectly) compared to Darko Milicic? Yikes.
Sep.17 at 7:08 pm
indi says:
with 0 nba games played that’s pretty stupid too
Sep.19 at 11:11 am
Roscoe Grant says:
Oden will bounce back after recovery and domonate the inside!!!
Sep.19 at 11:47 pm
LordGef says:
The Blazers are NOT cursed.
Sep.20 at 4:20 pm
Julian says:
which blazers were runnin trains? i think i missed that story. regrettably.