Greg Oden: Injuries, injuries, injuries...

[i am batman u die now]

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lc3wdl7mTl1qzx3jto1_500.jpg

 

Greg Oden's allegedly suffered another setback, delaying his return even more, and undoubtedly causing uproar and doubt from Blazer fans. Oden was taken over future (if nothing goes wrong) hall of famer Kevin Durant. Greg Oden was very impressive in college, people and analysts where pegging Oden as one of this era's best big men, but sadly his very robust injury list caught up with him at the worst time.

 

Let's look at the list.

 

•In sixth grade, Oden underwent surgery to repair his hip leaving one leg longer than the other. (Not a physician, but have to wonder if this had any impact on the following knee issues).

•His senior year of high school, Oden underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his wrist which kept him out until December for his freshman year of college.

•In September 2007 he underwent microfracture surgery to repair his right knee missing the entire 2007-2008 season.

•In October 2008 Andrew Bynum land on his foot missing two weeks.

•In February 2009 he bumped knees with Corey Maggette and chipped his left patella missing three weeks.

•In December 2009 he landed without contact on his left leg and badly fractured his left patella. His recovery was projected to take him up to training camp of 2010.

•After missing training camp, preseason, and the start of the regular season, it was announced in November 2010 that Oden would undergo microfracture surgery on his left knee and would miss the entire 2010-2011 season.

 

Amazing. I'm not a huge Blazer fan, however I'm a little peaved at the Blazers organization for not being a bit more candid about his chances of playing this season. I feel like they kind of lead us on, knowing the whole time, or at least the last couple months that he wasn't going to play this season. Why bother resigning a players who's injury history would persuade you to barely give him an invite to training camp?

 

Going back to his childhood , he had physical issues. His body is not rightly conditioned to sustain peak form during an 82 game season. He had a hip dysfunction in grade, making one of his legs (the thing that's bothering him the most and evidently ruining his career) longer then the other. Imagine how stressful that is on his joints? Doesn't that mean one leg has to support a larger amount of weight?

 

Evidently, his career is most likely over. The tradegy of Greg Oden is on par with Dajuan Wagner, who (like Oden) was plauged by injuries and had his career cut insanely short. In memory of all these guys:

Bender

Wagner

Livingston

McGrady

 

All those guys, who either where driven out of the league by injuries, or had their play hinder substantially, add Greg Oden to that list.

 

In closing; here's a few things to remember Oden by.

 

Edited February 7, 2012 by i am batman u die now

[NomarFachix]

could have*

[i am batman u die now]

Meh, made a more "attractive" title.

[NomarFachix]

Just helping

[i am batman u die now]

Oh no, I didn't mean to be sarcastic! I understand that.

[Nitro]

I'm glad you brought up the hip surgery he had that made one leg longer than the other, not many people know that fact and wonder why his legs keep falling apart.

 

It's a shame what has happened to his career. I remember back in 2007 I was on the Oden bandwagon, thinking he'd be a dominant center for years to come. His post game was kind of raw, but he was good around the basket offensively, and defensively and on the boards he was a monster. Back in college, he was exceptionally athletic for his size, and definitely had all the potential in the world. Even after the first microfracture, he was a beast defensively and showed a lot of potential. If he and Roy stayed healthy and continued to improve on their games, with Aldridge as the 3rd wheel and a strong cast of role players and a tremendous coach, they had the chance to win quite a few championships.

 

BTW, T-Mac had a really, really good 7-8 year run, I wouldn't put him on that list.

 

Also, with Oden becoming a FA this offseason, he should go to either Phoenix or Detroit. The team doctors for both those teams use voodoo black magic to resurrect careers. McDyess, Hill, T-Mac, Amare, Redd (work in progress), sustaining Nash, etc...

[Real Deal]

I was also on the Oden bandwagon. I remember rooting for him at Ohio State (when KU was eliminated), and he was playing with that tear in his wrist...playing with the non-shooting hand, shooting his free throws, grabbing boards, etc. I thought that was amazing.

 

His defensive numbers (such as oppFG% and oppPER) was as good as Dwight's, at certain points of his seasons with Portland...and while that was in limited action, there was no doubt he would be able to sustain those defensive numbers had he been healthy those years.