"I'm nothing now"

Oden has issues. Don't shoot the Blazers for trying to get Oden help and onto the basketball court (I can see why Oden's own motivation could be questioned).

A center who is being payed millions of dollars, is concerned that the person he is working with and payed by the Blazers is saying things to management. My question is what are you paranoid about and what are you afraid will be said? Does he not understand a franchise and fan base is hoping and counting on him being able to play and help the team. That he has played minimal games. OF course the organization wants to know what is going on. If GO is so concerned about information going back and forth (not sure why) then hire your ownh damn personal trainer . . . he is certainly get paid enough.

Blazers have coddled GO for years and all it has done is feed more of this entitlement personality.

 

Who cares? I think Paul Allen and Bert Kolde are incompetent nitwits who get in their own way when on the verge of success. I read into it that Carr would talk with management, when the entire role was supposed to be working with players. Just a dumb move, and typical, IMO, of this two-bit operation.

 

I'm a little surprised that this stuff didn't come up in his psych eval before the draft. Maybe it did and they ignored. it

 

Same. Met up with friends at the bar that were out hanging with him, actually. One or two of my friends used to "hang" with/from him a few times. Dude is cool. But he had no focus or drive. I'm sure the injuries furthered that.

 

There was a huge discussion at the time of the draft (on the other board) about the difference in mentality between Durant and Oden. Durant lived, ate and breathed basketball. Oden wants to be a dentist.

 

Dude, the franchise hired the guy. You don't think people in the organization are going to talk to him?

WTF, man?? We have our own resident board member who talks to members of the organization all the time. You think he's giving them any insight? Fuck no! Not that HCP has much to offer anyway....

But chatting with someone doesn't make them guilty. He's an employee. How often are people hired and then nobody in the organization speaks to them? Maybe they were talking to him about what his job entails, schedule, etc. Oden was dealing with the wrong person if he hired a guy willing to be bought - Carr can't divulge that information. And then you could spin it.... if it were me, I'd be happy the Blazers were trying to get into my head - it would show that they were concerned and wanted to help out.

 

Yes, but one will win championships, and the other will win scoring titles. KP never told us it would be the same one that did both. Shame on us for assuming

 

And who cares? Shit, if the situation were reversed, I'd be getting called out for twisting words and reading something from the article that wasn't in there. You made an incorrect assertion.

 

I'm talking about Oden's perception, not Vulcan intentions, which is all that matters in this context.

 

I still think all of this adds up to (being a big piece of) KP being fired. Ignored psych evals, medical evals...

 

I incorrectly asserted Oden's negative perception of seeing Carr talking to Blazer officials?

Whuuuuuut?

 

No. You stated something you made up as if it were fact. Not really surprised - you often do that to support your arguments. Nothing about that interview says anything about the organization NOT checking with Greg first. Absolutely nothing. But your quote clearly does. But, 1, you're not a credible source. And, 2, you're even less of a source for the article we're discussing.

"Bringing in a HS coach is one thing, but hiring a professional therapist who was working with Greg, and apparently not even talking to Greg about it, is just dumb. If the Blazers wanted to hire him, they should have talked to Greg and asked if he'd have any issues with it. Apparently, based on that interview, nobody even thought to talk to Oden about the potential conflict of interest."

 

First, whatever the Blazers' relationship with this shrink was, if he told the org what he'd discussed in sessions with Greg, that is a serious breach of medical ethics. Either the shrink was crooked or Oden was getting paranoid (or both).

I remember the psych evals, there was concern Durant would want the spotlight, that he'd bolt for bright lights and big cities. That the Blazers would be like the Cavs after LeBron. While Oden was seen as someone who would fit in and like it here. Turns out not to be the case, either way. I've always felt psych evals were bs. This was sure an example.

I do understand some of his points. The other young guys were playing, they were in daily contact with older players and coaches. Greg had too much money and too much time on his hands and was too young to handle the situation. But I'm not sure what the Blazers could do about it. He could have sought advice. He was always welcome to travel with the team but did not or could not. Supposedly having his cousin was going to help, turned out otherwise, but did Greg say anything to the Blazers?

As for Greg having bad luck coming to terrible Portland as opposed to wonderful Seattle, which city still has a team? I mean, doesn't that say something about the respective organizations? Just what does this writer think the medical staff should have done, based of course on his medical degree and expertise in skeletal injuries? Aside from saying Greg "may" have gone elsewhere and Blazers "may" have done something wrong?

Frankly I just see a lot of shit luck.
And the usual suspect who either say "Greg is horrible! String him up!" or "The Blazers are horrible! String them up!"

 

Totally agree on both points. I mentioned earlier Greg was dealing with the wrong person if Carr was actually selling his inside information (of Greg) to the Blazers. That'd be so messed up and very unethical for Carr to give away such knowledge. I don't know the guy, so I'd like to think this wasn't the case, and Greg is just paranoid. If Greg has the wherewithal to set himself up with a psychologist, if he has any doubts or concerns, he should have taken the time to express them.

Your point at the end.... Funny thing is, the organization, and most fans, have wished Greg well. Greg is blabbing and saying unflattering things about Portland. Another sign of insecurity and paranoia, IMO.

 

That was probably the #1 reason for doing this interview with Greg. Free publicity to sell his book.

 

Pretty stupid how Greg said Portland isn't a great city for a black athlete to live in, and then say all he wants is privacy and not to be bothered.

Yeah, Greg, sure it would have worked out real well in NY.

 

I defended Greg for a long time. Not because I thought he could still be something great, but because I thought the city had unrealistic expectations for him (after the second or third surgery) and that the lashing out was unfair. I just find this article to be extremely disappointing and it shows that Greg has very little class. The team and (most) of the city stuck by him until the bitter end. I think the franchise would have kept him longer if they had seen something, anything, to cling to. It is obvious now that Greg was not only plagued by injuries, but was also plagued by a poor attitude. To take shots at the city on the way out is just extremely classless. I have lost all respect I had for the guy.

If anything, I think a city like Portland is better for a young rich person (who cares what color they are). There are very few distractions here. It would be ten times worse in a city like NY, LA, or Miami. If my son was just joining the NBA at 19 or 20 years old, I would be extremely thankful that he was going to a quiet place like Portland. The housing isn't as expensive as an LA or NY, and there isn't a place like Vegas or Atlantic city within driving distance (LA/NY) or a crazy nightlife (Miami/NOR).

I don't know why people are so quick to jump on the Blazers for this. It sounds more like a suspicious wife or husband, accusing their significant other of cheating on them because they saw them talking to a member of the opposite sex. So what if he was seen talking to a member of the Blazers front office? He works for them. He had no proof that he was divulging confidential information to the team. If anything, they probably wanted the guy on their payroll so they could ensure that the news about Greg seeing a shrink wasn't getting out. They were always in damage control with news about Greg. It would be a lot easier to brush it off if the guy was an employee of the team and not a random therapist.

 

Regardless, The Blazers fucked it up from the start. Should have never given him that first MF surgery so soon.