yea, him and battie are in the same situation. One had a possible career debilitating surgery while the other injured his shoulder. then one sprained their ankle and can't play, while the other has a hurt finger, something most HS players would play through. good thinking tony.
whatever dude. Oden's career was never in jeopardy. The earliest reports all indicated a full recovery was the likely outcome. Microfracture isn't the boogie man of surgeries, guys have been making it back to their full capacities with regularity. It takes a longer rehab period to come back from then a scope but if the injury isn't too bad MF gives the player a much better chance of returning 100% It's nice to see NBA players rooting for each other. STOMP
And I'm really in the same situation as Kobe Bryant. He needs surgery on his finger and mine's all swollen because I jammed it in a pickup game. Tony and Greg, me and Kobe, all in the same boat.
Howard is a class act. Definitely one of the good guys off the court. He is a bit chippy on the court, but if he played on my team I would love him.
He is classy for the most part. I used to think he was almost perfect. Until that crap he pulled last night with Sergio. But other then that, I think he is cool
His physique is so jaw-dropping, I think I have a hard time assigning a personality to him. He certainly seems like a class act. Somehow his shoulders remind me of Karl Malone's... though Howard has to be even bigger. iWatas
His build reminds me of Kevin Willis. The kid is unbelievably ripped. Of course his athleticism is way beyond anything Kwill had. It's cool to see Howard and Battie giving Oden support. It sucks we'll have to wait for the Howard/Oden matchup until later. Those matchups are going to be punishing.
I hope we don't rush Oden back too soon. He really needs to trim some lbs before getting out on the court. He CAN NOT get hurt again this season..just can't happen.
You look pretty stupid after this comment. 1. They both missed the whole year last year. 2. They both were injured upon returning this year. Pretty obvious to me it's a more similar situation than not.
Great post. Seriously, any decent human being has sympathy for another that's injured. It doesn't matter that Tony Battie is a lesser talent than Greg Oden and his injuries were different, it was still classly of him to empathize with Oden and his injury situation. Putting down Battie over this, however, seems to be the opposite of classly. BNM
Nice comments by Orlando's guys. I'm curious about this part: "Tony Battie said he's pulling for Oden to return to health because of the close fraternity of big men." Is there truth to that? I've never heard mention of it before. Are NBA bigs a closer knit group than those at other positions?
Yup. Kareem & Russell always come back to greet the new guys in the L. Shaq called out Oden at the ESPY's, IIRC. Centers seem to be much tighter than players at other positions. There doesn't seem to be a brotherhood at any of the other positions like the one at Center.
And Kareem has been mentoring Bynum and Russell has been supportive of Oden. Bill Walton was always Shaq's biggest cheerleader. Big guys who have been through the grind of banging in the paint seem to go out of their way to help pass the baton to the future generation of big men. BNM
