Greg Oden Out for Rookie Season

The New York Times reports that Greg Oden, the number one pick of the 2007 draft of the Portland Trail Blazers, will miss his rookie season because of microfracture surgery on his right knee.

The article quotes the Trail Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard said as saying, "Certainly this is a setback, but our future is still incredibly bright."

Excerpts of the article include:

Greg Oden, the top pick in this year's NBA draft, likely will miss his first season with the Portland Trail Blazers after surgery on his right knee Thursday.

Doctors found cartilage damage during an exploratory procedure, and team physician Dr. Don Roberts performed microfracture surgery to repair the damage.

"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," Roberts said in a statement.

The 7-foot center is expected to be on crutches for up to eight weeks. Full recovery likely will take six to 12 months, the team said. Oden was the No. 1 pick in the June draft out of Ohio State, where he averaged 15.7 points and 9.6 rebounds.

plez sez: echoes of sam bowie (remember portland picked sam bowie over michael jordan in the 1983 draft). echoes of bill walton (plagued by knee problems most of his career, bill walton's one good year resulting in an nba championship for the trail blazers).

i feel bad for the franchise. they had an opportunity to pick a more dynamic player who has a tremendous up-side that gred oden does not possess (kevin durant from texas). they went with the "sure thing": a 7-footer who can walk and chew gum at the same time! but nothing is sure when you're dealing with 18- and 19-year olds. for the life of me, i cannot understand how these professional teams can put out so much money for an unproven commodity... it just seems to risky! (check out this ESPN article)

now, the trail blazers will have to suffer for that risk (played his one year in college with a cast on his right wrist, he had a tonsillectomy soon after he was drafted, and now this).