Greg Oden should probably shut it down — NOW
His mouth, not his basketball.
I think it’s wonderful that he’s such an open guy. An honest guy. But I also believe that by being so open with his solitary sadness he’s not doing himself any good. He’s already been psychoanalyzed by the media and the public more often than any other Portlander, including Mayor Sam Adams. Some of this stuff, no matter how honest, will cause his critics to say he’s a big baby.
That “Dang, can I ever do anything right?” kind of feeling is something we’ve all gone through at times. I hope I’m wrong but I’m not sure talking about it is doing Oden any good. Sure he feels bad. We all do. But this is a time for patience — by Oden and everyone else.
That said, I don’t think the team put him in a very good position by calling his status “day to day” when it was quickly apparent he’d be out of action for an extended period of time. Why would they do that? It led to all that speculation about how much he really wanted to play, how much heart he has, etc.
I will say once more that this has not been the best season ever for the Trail Blazers’ medical staff.
NBA, Trail Blazers | Dwight Jaynes | March 9, 2009
The best thing about the Blazers’ medical staff? They’re not the Clippers’ medical staff.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Oden walked away from Ptown when his rookie deal is up. He is getting treated very poorly here.
I don’t know if he’s being treated poorly, but he is certainly under a lot of pressure.
While it’s a shot in the dark and has a snowball’s chance in hell of happening, it would be nice if people just left him alone when it came down to personal stuff (questioning his passion for the game, etc). What good does that do? I honestly don’t know.
The Blazers medical staff should be held accountable. Under their watch, microfractures are happening at an alarming rate, Randolph, Miles, Oden.
They botched the Martell Webster situation, he’s out the entire year. Not good.
cringed to see Quick’s article in today’s paper. totally agree with Dwight that GO needs to get himself out of the newspapers.
On the brighter side, who knows, maybe this injury will be a good thing in the end:
1. it will cement in how much the Blazers need him.
2. it will lower expectations for him.
3. it will lower expectations for the team.
4. it will lower expecations on the KP-is-a-magician nonsense.
5. the team will still make the playoffs, and several key players will get valuable playoff experience. the whole team will grow up a little bit, and then he can do his growing up next year.
6. it gives him rest which hopefully helps his microfracture knee too.
7. while the team needs him he is not the key piece right now that will get them a championship this year. they’re not doing that with or without him. in this light, the Bynum injury is a much bigger deal, and I don’t hear as many people fussing about Bynum being a “bust”.
the injury sounds painful but not the sort of thing that jeopardizes a career. it’s not like a major structural injury. when it heals it seems that he should have few residual problems due to this injury.
That article proved how immature Oden really is.
Bob Whitsitt:
What do you expect, the kid is 21 years old. He should be a junior in college. What were you doing as a junior in college? (if you’re even that old, some of your comments seem about as mature as a freshman in high school)
People need to realize how young a lot of these guys really are, especially the Blazers. They’re not always going to say the right thing every time. Be thankful he’s not screwing up in ways that a lot of other young NBA players do.
Agreed, although I think Greg represents himself well. I think its cool that we have a guy that isn’t constantly checking his talking points sheet when he talks to the newspapers; shows that he’s human. The league is good at promoting clones that can dunk, how boring is that?
As for his status, no sense taking any stupid chances by rushing Greg back early; we’re not winning the title this year anyways. If we can get past the first round, that would be my championship for this year.
Oden got hurt, and he needs time. Who cares? Its not like Greg was going to take this team to a championship in the next year or two.
It seems the fans have turned on him in amazingly fast time. It also doesn’t help when you have morons like Canzano saying he doesn’t have heart, or that he doesn’t want to play. Maybe the kid does want to play. Maybe he wants to play more than anything else. What if, he also wants to avoid risking ending his career before it even starts by coming back too soon.
Oden isn’t the difference maker this season. The Blazers will make the playoffs, and probably lose in the first round regardless of whether he is playing or not.
CVD2312 says:
March 9, 2009 at 11:36 am
Bob Whitsitt:
What do you expect, the kid is 21 years old. He should be a junior in college. What were you doing as a junior in college?
More excuses, soon the Oden sheeple will run out of them.
As for what I was doing my junior year of college…. getting my degree a year early and preparing for law school. Wow has it been 23 years….
Hey Bob,
Leave Greg Alone!
ANY #1 draft pick is going to be under high levels of scrutiny> by the media, the public and self. That is IF the player is an honest, down to earth one, as is our man Oden. I can easily imagine what kind of response/openness would be forthcoming from..oh..say..Rasheed Wallace.
Regardless of medical staff mistatement, I think many long time Blazer fans are fighting that Sam Bowie feeling. I can only hope whatever treatment may be applied for same, it will work and support for a young – albeit large – athlete will arize from the ashes. Asuming media-types are actually fans too ( Some deep, deep down I suppose), maybe the professional strength version of the poultice is in order.
To Mr. Oden…When you come back, just leave the sensitivities outside the paint. The rest should take care of itself.
I’m trying to understand how a group of “medical professionals” can 1) come up with a diagnosis for 1-6 weeks. Isn’t that a large timeline? And 2) How do these “medical professionals” still have jobs? Every injury that the team has occured has become more serious than it was originally speculated. Is that because our medical staff is not as knowledgable as they should be? Is it that they don’t want to tell the truth because they fear it will hurt the team’s bottom line? Whatever the reason is, they basically left Greg out to dry. Seriously, 1-6 weeks is the timeline and you declare him “day-to-day?” Someone needs to take a look at this situation whether it’s Paul Allen himself or whoever. All these injuries that are supposedly not major injuries always seem to become major injuries.
As for you Bob, if you got your law degree, I pray you never represent me. Anything you EVER say on here has no substance, it’s just an attack on people (mainly Greg). You must be a crappy lawyer because you seem to never have any evidence or anything to back up your claims. You’re like Rush Limbaugh, a loud mouth bully who thinks people give an S about what he says. Well you know what they say, the people that talk the loudest are and are on the ends of the spectrum are typically the least intelligent.
As for your statement, Bob, about “this article proved how immature Oden really is,” shows how ignorant you truly are. The article was written by Quick, so you know not ALL of the quotes are in there. He takes bits and pieces and makes them fit his pre-conceived article. If you think this article makes Greg look immature you’re completely backwards. What this shows is the fact that Greg has enough backbone to stand up for himself and say “hey, stfu, I know when I’m sore and when I’m in pain, and I’m in pain.” You say he’s immature for when he comes out and defends his situation, you say he has no heart when he doesn’t defend it. So what do you want him to say Bob? You’re just an overall hater Bob. Grow up and go get a woman because you sound like a whiney d-bag that needs to get laid. When Oden’s career is done here, than talk all the S you want. But I’ll GUARANTEE you that all the S you’ll be talkin, once again won’t have any substance behind it.
The one stat that says it all. Oden has played in whopping 46 games while being the league nearly 2 full season. By the time this year is over, his participation rate will be <30% folks. It makes Sam Bowie seem like freaking Cal Ripkin.
Franklin=Bob
Blazer Dawg, nice to see you post afterschool, now go back over to the head in the sand b-edge site. This blog is for adults not the pre-teens such as yourself
Like I’ve said over and over again folks, the Blazers win in spite of Greg, not because of him. Even Dwight will be singing my praises before long….
Ooo good sting Bob. I post when I do because I have what people call “a job.” Apparently you don’t, either that or you don’t do anything at your job other than post crap on here. And you’re right, this blog IS for adults. So maybe you should keep your uneducated fluff-filled 3rd grade posts to yourself.
and P.S. – Coming on here and pretending to be 2 people just so you feel like you have someone to back up those ignorant comments of yours is sad. I pity you.
Blazer_LittleGirl says
and P.S. – Coming on here and pretending to be 2 people just so you feel like you have someone to back up those ignorant comments of yours is sad. I pity you.
Sorry junior I only post under one name, easily proven by Mr.Jaynes.
Now get to your Cheerleader practice, you don’t want to be late.
Another Greg Oden pity party in todays paper…