Sep
13
Greg Oden Inevitably Compared to Sam Bowie
Filed Under NBA, Commentary
Portland Trailblazers Top Selection to Miss Rookie Season with Knee Injury
With today’s surprising news that Greg Oden, the number-one overall pick of the Portland Trailblazers in the 2007 NBA draft, will miss his rookie season due to microfracture surgery, the inevitable comparisons to Sam Bowie were made. The Blazers of course chose Bowie ahead of Michael Jordan with the second overall draft pick of the 1984 NBA Draft.
Bowie’s pro career followed his collegiate playing days at the University of Kentucky to an exact script: Bowie spend most of his career saddled with knee injuries. The Blazers would later trade Bowie to the New Jersey Nets for Buck Williams, a power forward who helped Portland make two NBA Finals appearances in three seasons during the early nineties. The Blazers would lose the 1992 Finals to the Chicago Bulls and Jordan, who went on to change the game of basketball and pro sports as we now know it during his illustrious career.
With Oden now set to miss likely all of his rookie season, people are thus asking if Oden is the next Bowie. These people drawing comparisons between the former Ohio State star and the guy forever known as the pick before Jordan have also been asking if the Blazers screwed up by not selecting stud University of Texas forward Kevin Durant, who was drafted by the Seattle Sonics with the second pick in this year’s draft.
The answers to both of these questions are a simple ‘no’. To begin with, it’s too early to speculate whether Oden’s career will be like Bowie’s and whether the Blazers are cursed when it comes to drafting big men high in the draft. Oden did not have the knee injuries that Bowie had in college and with today’s medical procedures, he can fully recover. Phoenix Suns big man Amare Stoudemire had microfracture surgery a couple of seasons ago and is now back to being one of the best big men in the game. Blazers fans need to be patient with Oden, let him recover and not let this idea of a Bowie curse get in their big man’s head.
As for picking Oden before Durant, the Blazers absolutely made the smart decision. When a big man of Oden’s quality is avaialable in the draft, you don’t pass him up. Oden is not a stiff and showed a nice half-hook shot at Ohio State that could become his dominant move (besides the dunk) for years to come. Furthermore, Oden can shoot free throws for a big man. In a league all about marketability and Oden figured to be painted as a face of the league for years to come, he will automatically command the respect of the officials. While Durant is going to be very good, refs call the games a lot differently for superstar big men. Oden will be at the line a lot and unlike Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O’Neal or Tim Duncan, this guy can hit free throws.
While a setback for the meantime, Portland fans need to relax and support Oden during his recovery. They should not subscribe to the theory that Oden is the next Bowie. Portland wasn’t going to win the title with Oden next season to begin with. However, when he comes back healthy and establishes himself in his first couple of seasons, Oden and the Blazers will be contenders for years to come.
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