Bill Simmons would be making many of the same excuses that Blazer fans are making for Oden if he had been drafted by the Celtics, which is what he and the franchise were banking on prior to the draft lottery. Just as I view the bend-over-backwards defensiveness toward Oden to be based on homerism, I also have to view completely unfair criticisms like I just read on Simmons' own homerism.
Hmmm, he still seems bitter about Portland winning the lottery when the Celtics we denied they're destiny. You can go back in any team's draft history and find stuff like that. Boston drafted Paul Westfall over Dr. J and Antoine Walker at 6 over Kobe at 13. Not to mention their completely wasted #2 pick for Len Bias. Bill Simmons has never had a good thing to say about the Blazers. And considering this is a very small market team and he's a fan of the "greatest NBA franchise in history" with a huge market why does he pay so much attention to the Blazers to make himself feel better? Is there some Freudian thing going on here?
Bill Simmons can lick my scrotum. All this obsession over Oden being somehow terrible when he's still got the most double-doubles of any rookie, and his PER of 17.5 already makes him an above average starter. Sure he's shown himself to be incredibly foul prone, and that has substantially limited his minutes (when he was healthy), but it's all pretty much part of the emerging narrative that the national media seem to be intent on creating "Sam Bowie part II", "Oden vs. Durant = Bowie vs. Jordan" etc. Sports reporters don't report on sports anymore, they're obsessed with driving and creating the story, this slipshod, lackluster analysis just reinforces that perception for me. Besides, there seems to be a strong desire to see highly touted draft picks in all sports fail; what sports writer doesn't secretly relish the opportunity to wag their finger and say, "I told you so." to some GM, or to ridicule and mock the Kwame Browns and Darko Milicices of the world? Par for the course.
"Underwhelming"? I'm afraid Simmons is exactly right. That's a perfect word for Oden's performance this year. Will Oden get better and finally meet our expectations? Maybe. But it ain't happened yet, and there is no guarantee that it ever will.
I agree with your entire post. On this point, I'd add that sports writers like spectacular successes or spectacular failures. They're much happier with a Kwame Brown flame out #1 pick than a Joe Smith #1 pick. Sure, Smith was a bust for a top pick, but he's been an okay player...he hasn't been the spectacular bust that Brown or Olowakandi were. Thus, they have a bias toward pushing highly-drafted players into the spectacular success or spectacular failure category. Oden, so far, hasn't been the superstar that a #1 pick is supposed to be. Of course, simply putting it like that, and pointing out that he's played better than his raw stats indicate, wouldn't be exciting writing. It's better to cast him as Sam Bowie and a crushing failure. If he's great later, they'll be happy to place him on a pedestal at that point. For now, though, crushing failure is the better story.
Martin over McAdoo. The Malone trade. Bowie over Jordan. Webster over Paul/Williams. He was kind and didn't even mention the Kiki deal, Jermaine for DD, or Kemp. Sorry, but he is absolutely correct. The Blazers have a history of torturing their fans with idiotic moves. Given that history, why should he give Oden or the team the benefit of the doubt?
Well, at least none of our high draft picks died of a cocaine overdose within 48 hours of being picked. BTW, I think that was very sad and tragic, but if Simmons wants to bring up our draft failuers, turn-about is fair play. Besides, Oden HAS been dominant at times this season. He's also been very inconsistent and foul prone. He's a rookie big man coming off microfracture surgery. It's a little early to be lumping him in with LaRue Martin. BNM
How many of those boneheaded moves were made by the same GM that picked Oden? Exactly zero. Before we right off the Oden pick as a bust, let's give the kid a couple more years and trust the judgement of the guy who plucked both Roy and Aldridge out of the 2006 draft when other GMs with higher picks preferred Bargnani, Tyrus Thomas, Adam Morrison, Shelden Williams and Randy Foye. Simmons is still pissed that we striffed them in the Tefair trade, got Roy as a result, and beat the odds in 2007 to win the lottery after the Celtics spent the season tanking in hopes of landing Oden or Durant. Bitter, bitter little clown. BNM
I call bullshit. I don't remember Simmons saying anything about Durant being better than Oden before the 2007 draft.
I do. Simmons was in the Durant camp. I don't remember for sure if it was before or after he knew the Celtics weren't getting the first pick. But I do remember him saying the Blazers should pick Durant.
Yep, and he makes some points that are still debated to this day. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=nbamockdraft/070627
And I'm thinking that the reason Simmon's analysis is so good is because it's just a gut reaction, the same way we decided to pick Brandon Roy. And of course I'm just speculating, but it seems maybe KP didn't listen to his gut reaction after meeting these two guys.
