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.
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
December 6th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Good news for Brandon Roy! Maybe he’ll get some extra rebounds with him out of there for the ol fantasy team!
December 7th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
mceezy
The sad fact here for Oden , once you undergo micro-fracture surgery the knee is never the same again. Something this was bound to happen and it now may well curtail and his NBA career before it even got off the ground.
Alan Parkins
December 8th, 2009 at 11:50 am
mceezy
Sad fact also concerning Oden, is the mere fact that the Blazers didn’t not use due diligence when researching his health background. Had they done so ,then they’d have realized that he was amongst the ‘walking wounded’ while in college. No amount of internal their own medical tests and fitness can really dig deep enough in a situation like this, unless they’re prepared to go the whole ‘nine yards’ . Which is something that I don’t think that Blazers’ GM , Kevin Pritchard, really did.
My response to the comment you left concerning my piece on the MLB winter meetings.
mceezy
Yes it does ! Especially when teams such as the A’s have the benefit of the ‘luxury sharing revenues’ garnered by way of Selig’s edict in MLB. And then the owners rather than using that money to invest in the team , choose to pocket it themselves.
Beane is notthing more than a ‘bean counter’ as his name would suggest. Given the fact that he’s the GM of a small market team , he’s got to be frugal as to the team’s expenditure. That being said the A’s ownership has the money but they’d rather not go out there and take that risk or as supposition would suggest ‘make that ultimate sacrifice’ as they’re afraid to get burnt.
In assessing talent it all comes down to good coaching staff and not seemingly a GM who in essence is nothing more than a ‘bean counter’. Need I say more on the subject ? And around the league at present that’s what a vast majority of the teams seem to be governed by . The coaching staff and scouts do not seem to be all that good anymore. At best they’re less than average !
Alan Parkins
December 8th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Alright, you’ve obviously got it all wrong regarding Billy Beane. If you think the coaching staff is “assessing talent” you’re wrong. Bob Geren is nothing more than a Billy Beane puppet. They’re recent losing has all been done under Geren, Beane’s friend.
It’s also a common misconception that the A’s don’t spend money. A couple years ago, they outbid the Yankees and Red Sox for Michael Ynoa. They also picked Max Stassi in last year’s draft, a player with first round talent that fell to the 4th round b/c team’s didn’t want to dole out the cash for him. The A’s did. Recently, they offered Scutaro more money than Boston as well.
December 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
mceezy
You learn from the hands of your teacher. Beane is the tutor and Geren is the pupil. Has it really changed that much ?
Michael Ynoa ? You’ve got to be kidding right ?
Baseball’s draft is more hit than miss, so don’t go counting your eggs before they’re hatched.
The Nationals overpaid for Strasbourg and they’ll never get to reap the dividends from that kid. Once his arbitration clock he’s outta there. You mark my words !
If you really want to blame someone for the malaise in baseball. Take both Selig, DuPuy and Scott Boras outside and have them castrated. It may not be much of answer but it certainly makes me feel good !
If the A’s are in such a healthy position as you believe them to be. Then let them open up their books for public scrutiny. Afterall it’s been taxpayers monies that in many respects have allowed them many of the so called privileges they now have there in Oakland.
I keep on hearing all this crap about teams such as the A’s. But literally no one ever tends to look intensely at how the teams operate. From a business standpoint , that above all else tells me the mindset of a franchise from the get-go.
There’s no real transparency with the vast majority of sport’s franchises across the sporting panacea.
If they were , then we wouldn’t be hearing about the likes of Tom Hicks and Ken Gillett seemingly bankrupting the Rangers. And the likes of billionaire like Sam Zell putting the Cubs into bankruptcy proceeding before selling the team off at an exorbitant price to the Ricketts’ family. Do you not observe stuff like that ?
Alan Parkins
December 8th, 2009 at 11:53 am
mceezy
Here’s my own piece on the Blazers’ loss of Oden.
A Simple Twist Of Fate ….
Alan Parkins