OK, I used to think Simmons was a funny guy. Now I just think he's a dick. He seems incapable of understanding the difference between someone who ate his way out of the league and someone recovering from microfracture knee surgery. And, for the record, Oden has better overall numbers (PER = 18.1 vs. PER = 16.4) than Roberts had as a rookie AND Roberts actually had a pretty promising rookie year - he made 2nd team all-rookie. So, I guess we can count on Simmons to vote for Oden for 2nd team all-rookie, right? No, of course not, he loves to hate on Oden. In spite of winning the title last year, he's still bitter that his Celtics got hosed by the ping pong balls after they deliberately tanked in a desperate effort to get a chance at Oden or Durant. BNM
Make no mistake, if the Celts would have gotten the #1 pick, he would have been all over them to pick GO (the Bill Russell parallels would have been too much for him). And if Oden would have had these injuries and foul calls, he would appoint himself Chief Apologist (Robert Parish pun not intended).
Simmons is ... one part great humorist, one part Kingspeed, one part Stephen A. Smith He's funny, sometimes ridiculously funny, but not to be taken seriously. Though it is hard to not take people seriously when they make inflammatory statements and actually mean them. This time next year I think the prognosticators will be singing a different tune when it comes to Oden. But, like the Blazers, he will have to prove himself first.
Read his Bosh entry. Read his Durant entry. Notice parallels. Remember that Durant's Texas team was worse than LMA's Texas team. Remember that Durant's Texas team was worse than DJ's Texas team. Remember that in 60 games played Greg Oden has as many wins (or more) than Durant has in 2 years in the league... Someone should check it out to figure it for sure - But the Westbrooks are at 22 wins now and 5 of them were without Durant - so he was part of 17 wins this year... If you add the 20 they won last year and assume he was a member of the team that won them all - his is now at 37 wins. I bet Greg won more than 37 wins in the 60 he participated in...
Simmons seems to have a massive HO for Oden. How many times is he going to slam the guy? It's getting old. At least he had some nice things to say about Rudy (his "favorite bench player") But we get it Bill . . . you think Oden sucks and was a massive mistake.
Greg also took his team to the NCAA Finals while Durant's team didn't even make it to the Sweet 16. Kevin will win all the personal awards, Greg will win all the jewelry.
Well, than his Celtics wouldn't have won a ring last year. It was a (temporary) blessing for Boston. Losing the Oden/Durrant sweepstakes propelled other moves that netted Ray Allen and KG.
He's still entertaining. I'd be a little bent as well if my favorite team tanked for the Oden sweepstakes only to have Oden head all the way across country to the Pacific Northwest. Time heals all wounds they say, but some just cut too deep. I don't have any problem with him pointing out the obvious, that Oden has had foul trouble. The Blazers have had a great year and they have two good centers. Oden outplayed Durant in their last meeting, so that's at least a start. And he's only going to get better, while the Celtics get older.
Barring injury, this is the worst version of Greg Oden that the NBA will see for years, and he still changes the game when he's in it and into it right now.
I have never found him funny or entertaining on any subject. Too me he always reminds of that guy who throws in the occasional "Thats what she said" and then similes thinking he is clever. He is just a big bag of wind to me.
I have never seen a writer that let his blind lust for his team be so incredibly mean to a player that has had so many unfortunate injuries. And that is what he is, just mean. Blind to the contributions Oden is making just because his heart was broken after his team went to all of the trouble to tank a season to get Oden and to only come up with the fifth pick. Truly pathetic.
Back in reality, Oden is the 3rd best rookie overall in terms of PER, plus he's the 12th best center in the entire league in PER. He's also 7th for centers in rebound rate (Przy is #1!), first in offensive rebound rate in the entire NBA for all positions (by 0.8), and 9th for Cs in true shooting %. Simmons is an idiot, by any objective standard.
I could care less what Simmons thinks of Oden. He probably hasn't seen Oden play one time this season. His article was still pretty funny, his mailbags are quite good and he is correct fairly frequently. He is just very wrong in this case. He has been blinded by Durant's stats and not the overall situation. Simmons is not the only guy on the planet that feels this way about Oden. There are actual Portland fans who agree with him. Until Oden can quiet his detractors we will get to read articles just like this one. I am hoping Oden has a huge game at least once in the playoffs.
There will always be articles like this, because there will always be something to criticize in Oden's game. But his reasons for calling out Oden were simply ridiculous and had to be addressed.
I've had to write humor for a living, believe it or not. So I appreciate how hard it can be. Simmons is a lot better at it than most people give him credit. This one really busted me up:
I find much of his writing comical, but his infatuation with criticizing Greg Oden has gone from somewhat humorous, to a bit pathetic, to now borderline obsessive as this season has progressed.
