Oden's debut begins with another step back
LOS ANGELES – He sat atop the training table, his right leg splayed out in front of him, a black and gray protective boot covering his foot. This is how Greg Oden’s introduction to the NBA ended. Another injury. More questions. His future waiting some 800 miles north in an MRI tube.
“It happens,” Oden said softly, his words hanging in the air like a dark cloud.
Yes, it happens. All too often, it seems, for Oden and these Portland Trail Blazers. They came here Tuesday night, hoping to measure themselves against the Los Angeles Lakers, the best the West has to offer, hoping to make good on all that promise and potential they carry on their fragile young shoulders. Instead, they left humbled and hurting, their franchise center once again using a pair of crutches to push himself out of the locker room.
The Blazers say they don’t know whether Oden’s latest injury is serious. The initial diagnosis was a mid-foot sprain, but X-rays taken at Staples Center were inconclusive. An MRI is scheduled for Wednesday in Portland. Oden called the injury a “small setback,” but when asked how long it might take for him to return, he shook his head.
“I have no idea,” he said.
Here’s what the Blazers do know: They can’t depend on their young center. Not yet, at least. Maybe not ever. He’s 20 years old, and his injury history is beginning to read like that of a 12-year veteran. He missed the start of his one season at Ohio State after having surgery on his right wrist. He missed all of his first season in Portland after having microfracture surgery on his right knee. He suffered a mild right ankle sprain last month at the start of training camp.
Maybe this, like the ankle sprain, doesn’t turn out to be serious, either. But some league executives who have seen Oden’s pre-draft medical report are skeptical of his ability to stay healthy for the long-term. Asked late Tuesday what in the report raised concerns, one Eastern Conference player personnel director was succinct with his answer: “Everything.”
Oden’s right leg is slightly longer than his left, which can create hip alignment problems, a condition that bothered former San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson late in his career. The physical also showed Oden had a bulging disc in his back. His knees were another potential area of worry.
Just one week ago, Oden sat in the Los Angeles Clippers’ practice facility after a workout with the Blazers and talked about how optimistic he felt. “My knee is good,” he said. “I have no problems with it. My body feels great. I’m having no problems at all.”
That’s why Oden couldn’t hide the dejection on his face Tuesday. He had waited nearly a year and a half to make his NBA debut, and for what? Three plays?
Oden’s good fortune didn’t last much past that. Less than three minutes into the game, he landed on the foot of Lakers guard Derek Fisher while trying to corral a rebound. TV replays showed him coming down toe-first on Fisher than rolling his ankle. He continued to play through the first two quarters, but clearly wasn’t running smooth. After he had trouble warming up in a back hallway after halftime, the Blazers’ training staff took him to get X-rays. He finished with five rebounds, a block and no points in just under 13 minutes.
Oden didn’t deserve this. He’s smart, funny, charming. And if he stays healthy, he should become a dominant player in the league, evidenced by the impressive block he had on the Lakers’ young center, Andrew Bynum, in the game’s opening minutes. “He’s a monster,” one scout gushed.
“He’s worked so hard to get himself back,” Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. “We tried to do all we could to get him into the season and here we are, first game and it’s a tweaked ankle. Hopefully it’s not anything serious and a couple of days he can be back.”
And if the injury is serious?
“I don’t even want to think about that,” McMillan said.
Somewhere, though, that thought is rattling around in his head. All preseason, McMillan preached patience as the expectations continued to grow around his young Blazers.
“One of my coaches always referred it to as baking a cake,” he said last week. “You’ve got the ingredients. You’ve got to let it cook. We have the ingredients to make something good here. Now we have to be patient and let it rise up.”
For all the talent on the roster, these Blazers are still green, still learning how to play with each other, and, yes, still fragile. Brandon Roy, Portland’s All-Star guard, had surgery in August to clean out some cartilage in his left knee. In his rookie season, he missed 19 games with a heel injury. McMillan even thinks he might have been too cautious trying to preserve his players’ health during the preseason, blaming himself for the 96-76 beating the Lakers put on them.
“The level of play went up tonight,” he said, “and we weren’t ready for that.”
Even with Oden healthy, the Blazers would have been overmatched. In the words of forward LaMarcus Aldridge, they looked “unsure” of themselves. The NBA did them no favors, delivering the defending Western Conference champions for their opener. Next up for Portland: Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs followed by Shaquille O’Neal and the Phoenix Suns.
League officials scheduled the three high-profile opponents for one reason: To market Oden. On Tuesday, the NBA dispatched a crew of photographers and a video crew to chronicle his debut.
“There's been so much talk over the summer, about us, the Blazers, expectations,” McMillan said about an hour before tipoff. “Finally, we can get to playing basketball. It's not about talking any more. We have to go out and show who we are and what we're about. It starts for us tonight.”
It started. All too familiarly.
