Yep, I was hoping to wake up and find that this Oden injury was a bad dream. Instead, it's more like a living nightmare.
That has been one of the most deflating moments my in life when it comes to sports... right after the 2000 WCF. I was looking forward to this season soooo much, and to have all of these things happen has been difficult to follow, but Oden getting hurt just took it right out of me. I feel incredibly bad for him and I fear that his career is in serious jeopardy. I'm sure he'll play basketball again, but I wonder how much he'll lose after this setback. Such a damn shame when you consider how well he's been playing as of late. Something is wrong with the Blazers and I feel like it's something way out of anyone's control. There's some bad juju around that team this year.
I will say that to reality next time I see it. Until then a drug and alcohol induced haze to cover the pain.
I felt like shit this morning too, but then again I've been battling a flu bug for 3 days, so that might have had something to do with it. But actually, the only thing I feel badly about in this situation is Greg the person, I sort of feel bad for his short handed team, and I'm kind of sad for selfish reasons that I won't get to see him play for another year, but I really felt some intense sadness for Greg today. I can scarcely even imagine what it must feel like to be him. I really hope he can keep his spirits up and not get too down about this.
Greg's fine. He'll be back. I'm not too worried about the long term effects of THIS knee injury - all reports are that he'll be 100% by next season. But I am worried about the NEXT one. The guy just seems to be an injury ticking time bomb. How much more can we take? If he comes back next season and get's hurt 20, 30, or 40 games in . . . what then? How much can we count on him going forward?
Which is why I predict KP will tender an extension offer to Greg that contains team options at some point. Either that or they will decline to extend him and will instead let him become a restricted free agent and let the market set his worth (which I can't really see any team offering any more than 5 million per year for maybe 3 or 4 years) at which point either KP matches or they work a sign and trade possibly ... or they just let him walk. I don't think the organization will be able to count on Greg as a full time player moving forward (nor will any other team) and that will be reflected in his second contract. Look for Przy to get extended to a 3 or 4 year deal for around the MLE and a guy like Joel Freeland brought over or some other kind of move to bring in some other front-court player to play next to LaMarcus and Przy for the next few years ... who knows maybe they get "lucky" in the draft lottery this year and take Aldrich out of KU?
