Kids medical records are sealed. The only thing on Oden's medical record was a broken wrist... Which he played through quite a bit and was very effective.
They had him in the gym and did a physical as is customary. Even so, making this mistske that possibly cost us a title is plenty grounds for firing. It's irrelevant if 29 other GMs also would have made the the mistake, someone had to be accountable, and it happened on his watch. He was the GM that made the biggest draft mistake since Bowie over Jordan. I'm just shocked people still think of him as a good executive.
In KP we trust. Hindsight, sure. The draft was called the Oden sweepstakes When the Blazers landed first pick the board almost crashed. Every sports media said Oden is #1. Paul Allen insisted in making the phone call himself.
I don't fault a guy for not knowing something that nobody else knew either. The youth medical records were sealed and the medical professionals agreed that Oden was healthy. I don't think Kevin Pritchard is a doctor, so I find it hard to blame him for missing a medical diagnosis.
A mediocre GM who made the 2nd biggest blunder in franchise history is not someone that warrants this kinda defense. We clearly diaagree.
Who is the superior GM since Trader Bob last century? Cronin Olshey Cho Larry Miller Steve Patterson John Nash Pretty sad list and even if some blame for Oden is assigned to KP he's probably the best.
I'm not defending him at all. I'm simply not blaming him for failing to know something that nobody else knew and making a decision that every GM in the league say they would have also made. Again, not a defense, just the facts. If anything, you simply aren't giving Oden the respect he deserves. He was the 2nd most hyped draft pick behind only LeBron. You can say Oden walked like an old man, but he beat Durant in the sprint, agility drill, AND the vertical test in the combine. And Durant could hardly bench 180lbs once. Oden averaged 15 & 9 playing with his nondominant hand in college. His right hand was in a cast the whole season. He shot 65% from the line with his wrong hand. No injuries in HS. Oden was a monster on the defensive end. An absolute beast. If he had just 4 healthy seasons the Blazers would have won a title.
And taking Durant at #1 would have given us a very different Durant. He’s said many times that being picked second is what drove him to succeed.
Kevin Pritchard didn't really do much for Portland. People associate him with fond memories of Brandon Roy, but he didn't select Brandon Roy. His first act as GM was taking Greg Oden. He traded Zach Randolph for shit. Traded a good backup PG for Bayless The only good moves he made was signing Andre Miller and drafting Batum. None of his other picks amounted anything. Look at ever transaction he made here. His body of work, overall, is crap. https://www.basketball-reference.com/executives/pritcke01x.html
I don't believe that's true. I think prospects are required to waive their right keep their medical records private. IIRC the records are submitted to team doctors and the doctors provide a prognosis summary to the team's front office
KP sure tried to take all the credit for the 2006 draft, and that kind of set in among Blazer fans. But I seem to recall Steve Patterson strongly disputing that KP was the one who made the calls during the 2006 draft. IIRC, Nash was fired as GM about a month before the draft and Patterson was immediately named interim GM; was promoted to official GM 2 or 3 months later. At the time of that draft, I believe KP was only the director of player personnel
That could be true. I'm not sure. But if a doctor signed off on it and didn't think it was a concern... And 8 years later the guy hasn't had injuries and is outrunning and out-testing other elite athletes at a professional combine... It doesn't seem like too much of a reach... If doctors don't think it's degenerative why would anybody give it a second look?
The way I remember it, Pritchard was running the draft along with the Orlando Magic's former GM (can't remember his name) who was there in a consulting role. But I thought Pritchard was rewarded with the GM position on the strength of his performance in the draft room. I honestly thought it seemed like Patterson was the one trying to take credit he didn't deserve. I spoke with Patterson quite a few times when I was on the Blazers Fan Advisory board and that definitely seemed like it would be something he'd do. I don't have any experience with Pritchard to know if that's something he would do or not.
here's what I remember: Portland's team doctors red-flagged one player and yellow flagged another. The rumors were that Brandon Roy (knees) was the one red-flagged, and Oden was the yellow flag. Oden was flagged because of anisomelia (short leg syndrome) and his wrist.
I don't buy this, I mean I'm sure Durant used that as motivation and meant what he said, but if he was #1 he just would've used something else as motivation. So even if that part of him was different I don't buy that he would've been less successful on the court.
