Greg Oden Surgery

[JPicks]

Greg Oden Revisits the Knife, Portland Cringes a Little
September 10, 2007 10:26 PM

When the Blazers, saddled with the wonderful dilemma of the top overall pick in the great 2007 draft, announced that they would select Greg Oden first, there was much rejoicing ... and a smattering of boos from a small but persistent batch of Kevin Durant-loving doubters.
One one the things the Durant-lovers pointed out was that Durant was more durable.
It was basically a crock. Between the two, they have played two seasons of college basketball, and had one injury, which was Oden's. Talk about a small sample size.
And even with that nasty wrist injury in college, Oden has hardly missed any playing time at any point in his life. Can't say he's not durable if he's playing, and winning, year in and year out.

But since being drafted, Greg Oden played in just a few summer league games before retiring to a tonsillectomy. After recovering from that, he scrimmaged a bit, and is now going in for some arthroscopic knee surgery. No word yet on how serious it is.
As we tune out the cackles of the doubters, us Blazer fans -- still high as kites about the team's good fortune -- have good reason to be just a little nervous. We're taking medium-high expectations into a season without one single proven star. Instead we have last year's best rookie in Brandon Roy, the summer league's best player in LaMarcus Aldridge, and the draft's best big man in Greg Oden. They are surrounded by a grab bag of very promising maybes.
And those three pillars of Portland's future are all medical mysteries at this point. Oden is two surgeries and zero games into his NBA career. Aldridge had his rookie year start very late because of shoulder surgery, and end very early with (now apparently cured) heart trouble. His summer league was cut short with a bum heel, that he has since described as possibly being that noxious pest plantar fasciitis -- which grows on NBA big men like kudzu, and almost never seems to go away.
Speaking of sore heels, Roy himself -- the maitre d' who has ushered in Portland's recent run of good fortune -- sat out several games last year with heel trouble.
So, is the future bright in Portland? Yes, as bright as on any team in the league. Is it guaranteed? Not by a long shot. This team will go only as far as those young bodies can carry it. Cross your fingers.

 

[JPicks]

This could actually be a bit more serious than previously reported. That'd be some terrible luck if Oden was down for the year.

Blazers officials would not comment further on Greg Oden's knee injury, outside of saying he may have cartilage problems in the knee. He will have exploratory surgery on Thursday.

This thing could go either way, as a team source told The Oregonian that the MRI results were inconclusive and that the damage could be as minor as a cartilage injury or as major as a ligament tear. Oden's season is actually in some doubt at this point, but we aren't likely to know any more about his status until after the exploratory surgery is performed later this week

 

[STEED]

:hairout:

 

[dabears54]

he is gonna be a bust, like all them duke players

 

[dabears54]

he's gonna stay hurt more than grant hill

 

[scourge]

no ODEN?!

are you serious? this would be some of the biggest bullshit I've seen in a minute.

fuck

 

[STEED]

he is gonna be a bust, like all them duke players

a 7'+ guy w/ his ability won't be a bust. he might not be a shaq and it might take a few years, but i'm gonna have a lil faith in this guy

 

[JPicks]

Holy shit. Out for the year.

Oden likely out for rookie season after knee surgery

Celebrated Trail Blazers rookie center Greg Oden, the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, will likely miss the 2007-2008 season after undergoing knee surgery Thursday, the team said.
"Greg had an arthroscopy and a microfracture surgery today," team physician Dr. Don Roberts, who performed the surgery, said in a statement posted on the Trail Blazers' Web site. "He was found to have articular cartilage damage in his right knee. The area of injury was not large and we were able to treat it with microfracture, which stimulates the growth of cartilage.
"There are things about this that are positive for Greg. First of all, he is young. The area where the damage was is small and the rest of his knee looked normal. All those are good signs for a complete recovery from microfracture surgery."
The Blazers are to discuss the news at a 4:30 p.m. ET news conference. Oden's procedure was performed in Vancouver, Wash.
Oden described the knee pain in an entry Tuesday on his personal blog:
"On my vacation earlier this summer i got up off the couch and remember my knee having a sharp pain in it. That was about a month ago. I didn't tell anyone because i didn't want to seem like i was complaining or making excuses for anything. Plus i wasn't doing anything at the time i realized it hurt, so i figured it couldn't be anything big.
"After a couple of weeks, i had to finally tell someone so i went to St. Vincent's Sports Performance (where i worked out at before draft) and got my knee looked at. That was right before i moved to Portland for good. My knee was swollen since i was there. I finally just said that i need to tell my trainer because this is not normal. We went to the doctor's the next day to get a MRI and that night me and my mom ended up in the doctor's office being told that I have to get surgery. It's a light one, just a scoop, but still it's just another setback. I would like for me to be playing and not seem like i'm a high-maintenance player, but things just keep popping up.
This is Oden's second health problem since the Trail Blazers drafted him in June. He had a tonsillectomy in July after struggling in two Las Vegas summer league games.
Oden, despite being hampered by a wrist injury during his freshman (and only) season at Ohio State, averaged 15.7 points and 9.6 rebounds in leading the Buckeyes to the national championship game. He had 25 points and 12 rebounds in the loss to Florida.
The Trail Blazers were the surprise winners of the NBA draft lottery and chose Oden over Texas forward Kevin Durant, who went to Seattle

 

[STEED]

that blows.

portland got boned

 

[Smokedawg]

wow

 

[Smokedawg]

bet they woulda like to know this before they didnt take durant and traded randolph...

dumbfucks

 

[brewer]

grant hill status without playing a game. wow. gl city of roses.

 

[tuck321]

FYI This is still my pound them every day team for the first few months and if I ever get to bet them over a season team total it will be for big money. I like this team more this year than I did Toronto last year which was my largest future bet. GL

 

[mogo]

LMFAO!

 

[Santacapper]

wonder if it was Alyssa or Candyce that kicked him in the knee to cause the pain when he was doing 'nothing'

 

[JPicks]

FYI This is still my pound them every day team for the first few months and if I ever get to bet them over a season team total it will be for big money. I like this team more this year than I did Toronto last year which was my largest future bet. GL

Well this should be GREAT news for you. Nothing like having the #1 identifiable player on the team hurt before the year starts plus getting rid of Randolph only makes this team look weaker. Not saying it's a fact just the perception of the move. Brandon Roy should have a huge year.

 

[Joe Public]

Tough break for that team, especially since they had so much hope.

If they were in the East it may not matter, but in the west . . .

 

[mogo]

wow that really sucks for the blazers

 

[scourge]

no oden for 2007, crooked refs and a reloaded Celtics team....

how much is the NBA going to suck this year?

 

[gpcyan3]

uh oh, GG Oden

 

[Throwback420]

Durant is a Beast

 

[orangemonk]

Three things that might cheer up Blazers fan: from bill simmons


1. From what we know about microfracture surgery, it seems younger players can come back at 100 percent (such as Amare Stoudemire).

2. The Oden-less Blazers are headed for another top-five pick because they play in a tough conference; if Oden comes back healthy in 2009, they're going to be stacked.

3. Video Game Greg is still healthy on Portland's "NBA Live 2008" roster.

 

[hile75]

I might puke

 

[B.A.R.]

FYI This is still my pound them every day team for the first few months and if I ever get to bet them over a season team total it will be for big money. I like this team more this year than I did Toronto last year which was my largest future bet. GL

I agree and heres a new reason why. This team would of had so many young guys running around into each other. Now, they have laMarcus and Brandon in year two and more comfortable and the cancer is gone. Good depth on this team, although young. A perfect scenrio would have been Oden missing haklf the season and coming back and getting integrated into the system

 

[B.A.R.]

The Sam Bowie comparisons merit consiideration know with the injuries.

 

[Digeze]

It's going to work out well down the track.

Next years draft class is going to be stacked with quality point guards. Just another piece of the puzzle that will be filled.

Sure it may not be pretty at times during this season but Aldridge and Roy will be forced to play major minutes and when Oden is healthy next season, he will have less pressure on him to carry a team (remember he is a very young centre and will probably take 2-3 seasons to become a force anyways.