Henry Abbott looses his mind, puts the loss entirely on an awkward Oden

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-36-72/Greg-Oden-Arrived-.html

Normally Henry Abbott makes good points and has reasonable opinions. However, this article is a freaking joke.

 

Reading now, but Oden himself said he was responsible for the loss.

 

I agree, stupid article. But, yes, the team and Oden need to figure out how to play together, and they haven't yet.
Not a revelation or a big deal, they will soon.

 

That is a player being responsible for his own actions. But the loss is not entirely on Oden. In fact, of all the people on the floor, Oden may be least responsible for the loss.

Did Oden make Frye suck?
Did Oden make the team miss 9 out of 29 free throws?
Sure, Oden had 5 turn-overs. But the team as a whole had 21.
I imagine Oden was responsible for LA becoming the invisible forward since most of LA's minutes came when Oden wasn't on the floor.
Did Oden call for the team to play a zone against a team shooting lights out from the outside?
Did Oden make horrible call after horrible call?
Did Oden miss entry passes to himself?
Did Oden not run the pick and roll when GS had no answer for that play?

The team lost the game, not Oden. Oden did very, very well for his 4th NBA game. I would say the rest of the team let him down.

 

I agree with some of his points. First Greg does look awkward and his timing is way off. I found a couple of times someones man would beat them and I'm thinking that's ok Greg's there but he didn't react. Obviously his timing is off since he hasn't played much basketball in the last year and he's still not in game shape. Both those things will come in the next month or so. I think the media has been so hyped up for this guy that no matter what he does he's not going to live up to the expectations, especially considering he's coming off a major surgery and a long lay off. We'll just have to accept the unreal expectations and enjoy when he actually meets those same unreal expectations.

 

Imagine a rookie coming off microfracture knee surgery looking "awkward" at times.......

Mind boggling.

Idiot.

 

I could quibble with parts of the article but it wasn't that far off base. While showing impressive potential and putting up some very nice numbers, Greg did make mistakes and the team did lose. I thought the last paragraph was on the money...

STOMP

 

I'm still pissed about the reffing from last night. What a complete bunch of horse shit.

 

I disagree. I don't think it makes Abbott an idiot to acknowledge the fact that Oden is awkward, regardless of if it's a part of coming back from injury or not. The fact is, he has been awkward and he's not at his full fitness and it does have an affect on the team when he is in.

Accepting his awkwardness might be part of a rational expectation for his recovery but it doesn't give us a win last night.

 

I am not saying that Abbott is wrong that Oden is still somewhat awkward on the floor, though to say he is the MOST awkward pro athelete he has ever seen is absurd. I figure he is far, far smoother out there then we could reasonably expect when coming off of micro-fracture knee surgery.

What I take great exception with is the idea that Oden was a main reason the team lost the game. That is simply not the case, and to say so makes him look foolish. If anything he kept them in a game when multiple players played like total shit. That kind of statement pisses me off to no end. Considering his article will be read by a huge number of people who didn't even see one second of the game, he should be a bit more careful about what he says.

Although this is the same moron that compared Oden to Sam Bowie.

Henry Abbott, your blazer fan card is hereby revoked.

 

Przybilla's time on the floor corresponded closely with Batum's. When Batum was taken out - not necessarily when Oden came in - seemed like when things unraveled.

 

hey guys... you know it's just one game outta 82... right?

 

I usually read Abbott's TruHoop everyday but really he doesn't know all that much about basketball IMO. He has interesting articles from different newspapers but when he writes something about his opinion I usually don't agree with him. I definitely don't agree with him about Oden. Sure Oden had 5 TO's and looks a little awkward but not worse then anybody he has ever seen what a dumb statement. What really lost the game for the Blazers were LMA terrible play and Roy's missing those FT's. If Roy hit his FT's we wouldn't have been down 3 points at the end. I'm not sure what is up with Abbott but I have a feeling Oden is going to just keep getting better and when Oden has one monster game Abbott will write some stupid article about how Oden has arrived and he has been waiting for this type of game all along.

 

As a Blazer fan, I imagine he saw Vlad Stepania and Ha Seung-Jin.

 

How bout Magloire - he was so slow with hands of stone.

 

Or as SlyPokerDog used to call him, "Chocolate Ha".

 

Wow, a guy playing in his 4th game in the NBA is called awkward and puts up 22 and 10?!?!? I'll take awkward for the rest of his career!

 

This was my take from the game as well. It reminded me of the Laker game where everyone kept trying to force feed Oden the ball, causing massive turnovers and spectator mentality.

I pretty much agree with that. Often, Oden looks more deliberate and slower responding that Manute Bol did.

My biggest problem with the game. But I blame Nate. This is the only way I can take anything good from the game:

I can't come up with any other explanation for the play calls and coaching of the game.

 

Henry, Henry, Henry.

This kind of absurd hyperbole does not enhance your reputation.

I know, I know, you are part of ESPN now, and the level of "journalism" at that godforsaken place is depressingly low.

Much of the rest of your essay is fine enough as far as it goes. But, when you toss in shit bombs like the line above, people stop comprehending what you are saying and only focus all the crap that is now splattered over your blog.

Oh well.

Be more careful with your words next time. You are, after all, in the words business.

 

How about Shawn Bradley who used to trip over his own feet running down the court?