Actually we haven't heard anything good or bad ... just that he had a surgery and that he didn't die on the operating table. Whatever follow-up or additional procedures he may or may not need is yet to be seen. I think something is maybe being overlooked here. The whole idea that he's still chipping off articular cartilage through nothing more than rehab is pretty troubling ... and ultimately he just may not be a good candidate for yet another MF surgery again.
That's my concern. MF and knee scopes are normally due to long term wear and tear. I've never heard of a player with so little "mileage" having so many problems.
I honestly do not give a shit about Greg Oden anymore. I heard the news on 750 today and laughed. Not out of frustration (like the last 100 frustrated chuckles inspired by Oden's incredible health issues), but I literally thought it was funny.
This is the point many people just want to ignore. The last *basketball* injury he suffered was the broken knee-cap. He was supposed to be back from that injury in the fall of 2010. Every game he has missed since then is for something that didn't happen on the court. To put it another way, in 5 seasons with the Blazers he will miss the equivalent of 4 full seasons. (80%) Out of that, 82 games can be attributed to injuries suffered while playing basketball for the Blazers. 60% of his career has been spent rehabbing from injuries that didn't happen while he was wearing a Blazer uniform. The rest happened in college, in rehab, playing guitar hero, DDR, or who-the-hell-knows-what.
According to Chad Buchanan, the surgery went as planned and there were no surprises: I agree that it's a concern that he's losing more cartilage, but given that neither of us have a medical degree, it's pretty hard to know whether this is a real long range problem or not. It may be that Greg's cartilage is made of "chalk", as you suggested, IIRC. It may also be that there are other reasons that we don't understand that account for the damage. I'm certainly not optimistic that Greg will have a long career, but I'm going to wait and see what happens rather than reaching a knee-jerk conclusion.
The point is, there were people who kept saying things like "we don't have medical degrees" about Roy, and yet those of us who said he was done were right. How can someone be this injury prone and have a successful career as an athlete? I think it's pretty obvious that Greg's body simply can't hold up to the rigors of professional basketball.
Well, I for one, am so relieved that Greg Oden will be able to resume his career shortly......rehabing.
This guy is barely a year older than me, I could not imagine having my body fail me so consistently as he has. The Oden bashing in here is nuts, I'd hate to know what it's like to have my knees not work no matter how bad I wanted it.
You'll notice nobody is bashing Roy for retiring. People don't like being strung along. Roy went out with class and dignity - and fans feel bad for him. Oden has given us one broken promise after another. There is also the fear he is sand-bagging....that he is just waiting to get out of Portland, then he will undergo a miracle cure and start playing for somebody else.
Who is bashing him? I guess we're bashing his knees, or bashing the situation, but I guess I'm not seeing the assault on his character.
Oden's body is like a zombie. It dies and comes back to life. Over and over. It hunts you down in the cemetary at midnight. You find an old creaky shack to hide in. He's out there searching for you. You're breathing as quietly as you can. He hears you. He's coming for you. You find a splintered board. You find a dusty book. You hold the board in your right hand and the book in the left. You'll get him with the old 1-2. He smashes the door to the ground. He's mad that you hid. You denied him his dinner. He lunges at you. He finishes you off. The zombie smacks his lips and limps to his next reincarnated village to find his next meal ticket.
Not funny man. And let me be clear, Im not saying you crossed a line, or that it's too soon to be cracking those kind of jokes regarding Greg. It's just that what you said here? Not funny. It's clearly not your best effort and someone had to tell you for fear you'd do it again.
No I don't have a medical degree, but I do have a little bit of a medical background after being a paramedic for 6 years and having had 4 major knee surgeries myself (the knee injuries and rehab taught me the most). However people want to spin it, this just isn't good, especially when you consider the fact that he's suffering trauma to his cartilage under the lowest impact possible (treadmill, bike, water running etc.that comes with rehab). You're right that we don't know exactly what his future holds but it sure seems unlikely that he's ever going to be able to hold up under the tremendous amount of pounding that comes with 82+ games given the number of knee injuries and cartilage injuries that he's suffered so far. It's really a shame. EDIT: And really, "knee jerk?" You think people are coming to fairly gloomy conclusions based on a "knee jerk" reaction? I don't even know how to respond to that.
Way down in this article it says that Greg is growing a beard to try out for a new movie they're making, to play the part of Abraham Lincoln. http://savannahnow.com/news/2012-02-03/zombie-horde-attacks-fort-pulaski-key-scene-shot-film
