Another Nail in the Coffin

The night of December 5th started off with such promise. The Houston Rockets were in Portland that evening for a showdown of probable Western Conference playoff teams. The Trailblazers hadn't played in 3 days and all the buzz was about the breakthrough performance of their young 7 foot center. Greg Oden is coming off of a 13 point/20 rebound / 4 block performance. All Star buzz was swirling and the phrase coming out of every ones mouth was, "He has arrived". No more bust talk. No more second guessing on passing on Kevin Durant. No more the next Sam Bowie chatter. This is what everyone had been waiting for.

Then ...

4 minutes into the game Rockets guard Aaron Brooks drives to his right and into the paint. He takes off and releases a floater just over the outstretched hands of Oden. Their knee's collide and the young 7 footer is on the floor screaming into the hardwood. I can only imagine the sound in the arena at that time. Probably a skin crawling silence. The sound of 20,000 people screaming "Not Again" without a single word being spoken.
Here on the east coast I'm one of the few that still defends the Blazers for taking Oden. I still remember watching the All American game when he was in High School when he was a man among boys. I still remember the NCAA final where Oden put up a 25 and 12 with 4 blocks against a Florida front line that all got drafted in the first round of the NBA draft.
Oden always seemed like he was trying so hard to be the "Next Great Big Man" when his body clearly had other ideas. You can tell he cares. You can tell he wants nothing more than to help Portland over the hump and start collecting jewelry. Unfortunately you can also tell he is probably never going to get to that level. This seems like another nail in the coffin of "Greg Oden the future HOF". Just remember a bust is someone who didn't have it in them or someone who didn't care enough to bring it out of themselves. Greg Oden's body betrayed him. That's not a bust, that's just bad luck.