Man, Greg Oden is mentally tough. The guy plays with a broken wrist on his dominant hand and just learns to shoot FT's left handed. The guy has MF and lifts like a madman. The guy has never gotten in a groove in his three years with this team and he's still plugging away. Greg Oden deserves some good health.
The only thing I care about with Oden is his weight. If he comes in to camp under 275 he'll be a monster. If he is in the 280-290 range he'll have foul trouble, less quickness and be much more likely to get re-injured.
So McMillan wants no change from September, when Oden came into camp out of shape and got injured. Oden's mind being full of hope now isn't going to prevent his body from caving in again. The Oregonian is always concerned with a player's words and mind. Too many blogs to fill up. Just wait and see how he PLAYS. I don't care about the flowery verbiage and the smiles. Let's see some negativity, some threats to his future career if he fails again to show up in top shape. Too many positive good wishes and hail good fellow's. Let's not hear for the second September in a row, "I haven't done any squats since I last played, because I went to summer school and no one objected. All they cared about was whether my mind is in a good place."
I have a feeling Oden's finally going to break out next season. In fact, I think he, Roy and Batum are all going to have great seasons.
A classic jlprk post. On the other hand, jl makes a valid point- it does get a little tiring about all the same old quotes over and over about the same old stuff regarding injured Blazers. And often we find the quotes not fully accurate. As Abe Lincoln once said, "We shall see what we shall see".
Actually, Yahoo! sports reports that Oden has been working with a nutritionist on diet issues. Same old same old, reading into something what was not said. A person with injuries has trouble trusting the hurt body part. A person who has been sick has trouble trusting their body at all. It's something that has been discussed here. Will Oden be afraid to go all out? McMillan is saying no. It does not mean he does not need to be in condition. This is not sausage where if you look too close you get sick. It's a simple statement that Oden's frame of mind is what the coach hopes for. Nothing more. Stop trying to read nonexistent tea leaves.
by many accounts (and to my eyeballs) Greg was in great shape last fall. As crandc relayed, it's been widely reported he's been working with a nutritionist honing his diet along with a variety of other medical experts and trainers reviewing his options on training so as to avoid injury and be the best he can be. Lol to your suggestion that having even stronger quads (through doing squats) would have somehow prevented ripping his kneecap in two... strong quad muscles are the likely cause of the injury. There are only so many hours a day that dude needs to train and if he wants some time away from X-Box to take a college nutrition class thats a positive in my book. I much prefer being measured and factual over frustrated negativity STOMP
Does this mean that they are bringing the "Wheres your head at" feature they used to have at home games back? You know the one, where they would cut out a players head, and paste it on some dude doing a dance on the big screen?
