Contrary to popular belief, the world did not stop spinning on Thursday, Sept. 13.
However, if you were in the city of Portland or are a Trail Blazer fan, you might still feel that way.
Portland’s new center, 19-year-old Greg Oden, underwent what was planned as exploratory knee surgery on that Thursday; however, the end result was much more grim. In what’s called the best-case scenario for the worst possible injury, Oden underwent microfracture knee surgery and will likely miss the entirety of the 2007-08 NBA season.
“Microfracture” is a dirty word to basketball fans. The average microfracture recovery time is a full year, plus a few months to regain full game fitness and intensity.
Even then, some players are never quite the same. Explosive basketball players who rely on their natural athleticism can’t quite recapture that intensity fully; though Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire is still a freak in the paint, he isn’t the freight train he was before his microfracture surgery.
What the hell does this mean for Oden, then? On the one hand, it’s a minor microfracture; however, the man is 19, and whispers of the ghosts of Trail Blazers big men past have turned into a rumble.
Bill Walton; Arvydas Sabonis; Sam Bowie. The Blazers seem to have some sort of big-man injury curse. Granted, Sabonis didn’t join the team in his prime, and Bowie and Walton would do much better with the advances in medicine; however, injury-prone players still exist, regardless of how fast they can return to play.
The kicker is, though, Oden doesn’t seem especially injury prone.
Sam Bowie had five major knee surgeries during his five years in Portland, after one leg surgery during his college career at Kentucky. Sam Bowie was injury prone.
Greg Oden missed eight games in his first college season with a wrist injury, but otherwise has not missed (nor lost) many games throughout his career. Junior high school, high school, AAU, college.
Is this a freak injury, with Oden successfully returning to the Blazers for the 2008-09 season and a healthy career full of championship rings? Or is it just the beginning of a career plagued with knocks, bumps, bruises, and time off the court and in the training room? Is Oden a bust?
Nobody knows yet.
As a Blazers fan, I’m not throwing away my Oden jersey yet at all. I’m looking at the careers of John Stockton, Jason Kidd, former Trail Blazer Zach Randolph and hockey great Steve Yzerman. Look at Stoudemire.
Look at how those players did after surgery; look at how Kidd, Randolph and Stoudemire are still valuable. Look at the precedent set by those players with strong work ethics – something Oden’s already displayed – proving that it’s not a career-ending surgery. Not in 2007, not with sufficient time to work out and regain strength, and, hopefully, not with a 19-year-old Portland Trail Blazer center.
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