Rice saying on twitter that the info on odens knee and the setback he had was misinformation and that he's on his normal path to being fine. He didn't say when he would be back or anything just that Greg's knees are "fine" and the restructure of his contract was a business decision.
Maybe it's just a matter of semantics. Setback or not, it doesn't sound like he'll be playing anytime soon.
BREAKING NEWS! Greg Oden has not suffered a setback, his knees are 100% fine. However, we've just learned that Greg Oden was hit by a TriMet Bus and will be out for the season!
There is no doubt in my mind that this is all strategy by Oden's camp. Instead of showcasing Oden on the basketball court for fear of injury they're playing it safe. Upon Oden becoming a free agent we will hear GLOWING reviews about his knees, and Oden will participate in numerous workouts for teams where he will look amazing. This is the safest route to $$ for Oden, and we will never see him play as a Blazer ever again. Some team will over pay for him and they will likely be as shit out of luck as we've been since we drafted him. Oden wants one decent pay day, and he'll get it. Unlike some of you, I don't believe he will ever be healthy enough to sustain dominance, so fuck it. Let some other franchise bust a nut all over his face. We've done our part. Oh yeah, Mike Rice is drunk.
and if he doesn't cool it he may lose his Twitter acct and maybe even his job faster then he can hammer down his vodka
I think Rice was responding to twitter reports of Oden on crutches, which were pictures from two years ago misreported as recent pictures.
So when Oden returns to the floor to play for the Blazers later this season, it will be like an impact mid-season move!
I'm having a hard time figuring out what Rice hopes to accomplish with this stuff? Facts are facts: Oden took less money when he absolutely didn't have to. Oden and his camp apparently entertained zero RFA contract offers. And finally, it was reported that he had some kind of "fragility" with connective tissue in his knee. So either Oden and his agents are just really altruistic and felt like giving up millions of dollars out of the goodness of their hearts and the "setback" report was false, or there really is a problem with his knee(s) and they knew they couldn't get a new contract past another team's physicians because he wasn't going to pass the physical ... and knowing this, they negotiated terms with the Blazers for a lesser amount because in technical terms he wasn't fit to play yet ... but might be at some point in the year. Hey, hopefully he's close and whatever is ailing him can be cleared up and he finally gets to play a little and be productive. God knows he's probably as anxious to show he can play as most Blazers' fans are.