Greg Oden's Season Ends Before It Begins

Greg Oden’s rookie season has just taken a dramatic turn. Earlier in the summer, while on vacation, Oden felt a sharp pain in his knee after getting off the couch. That pain he felt will likely end his 2007-2008 season because doctors found cartilage damage that will require arthroscopic surgery.

After receiving a text message this afternoon informing me of this news, I’ve had a couple of thoughts run through my head:

1) Greg Oden just seems like such a great guy; someone you want to root for and hate to see anything negative happen to. Since being drafted #1, I’ve heard many stories about Oden’s character and how the newfound money and fame hasn’t affected him. He was still rocking his mom’s Taurus, until his teammates forced him to upgrade his ride. To me, that says a lot about his priorities.

2) He is such an amazing talent, and at only 19, I was excited to see how far his abilities would take him. It’s so rare to see his combination of size, and athletic ability. He is still so raw that I was intrigued to see what would happen after working with the Blazers’ coaching staff. Could you imagine Greg Oden with a few offensive moves?

Now I don’t mean to sound like his career is over, or that he can’t become the player we envisioned, I just hate to see an injury at such an early age. I don’t want anything to inhibit such a special future.