It’s that time of year again. The leaves are falling, carolers are caroling, and Greg Oden is calling it a season early again. Now, I’m not gonna pile on the guy, because he’s had a stretch of bad luck, but I’m certainly not going to sing the same sad song the Portland press has been singing for years now. I’m not sure what it is – I definitely root for the guy – but something keeps me from feeling bad for him when he goes down. Maybe it’s that I hate project big men. Maybe it’s the slack the media cuts him; I mean, the guy gets praised for 10 pt, 8 rebounds nights, when in reality, he should be able to do that in his sleep. Maybe it’s because each #1 pick bust keeps Pervis Ellison memories out of my head. Maybe I’m just enamored with the Sam Bowie comparisons and like seeing it come to fruition. Whatever the case may be, one quote from Oden struck me. He said, “it’s on God’s hands now.” Really? Who’s hands was it in the last three times? At any rate, clearly God doesn’t want you playing basketball, because this is getting ridiculous. The big man just isn’t cut out for being on his feet. With the Winter Olympics taking place just a couple hours north of Portland this season, I’m hoping he takes up Luge or Bobsled. If he doesn’t go that route, I would pay good money to watch him try and get through a 1,000m speedskating race. It could be a who’s who of leg injuries all in a matter of minutes. ACLs, MCLs, patellas, Achilles, hell we’d probably even see some broken fibulas there.

Greg Oden shoots over an aging Andrew Bynum. Wait, that's not Bynum. But that's DEFINITELY Oden.