Whoah I thought this was Ronan the whole time. I was wondering how he all the sudden was so interested in BBall lol.
Truth. The only people not saying Oden is a bust are mostly Blazers fans, Blazers media, and the Blazers management with maybe a few national writers thrown in there, but even those are harder to find nowadays. Simmons is harmless, pretty funny and sometimes very insightful when it comes to his observations of the league -- I actually believe for instance the T'Wolves should have hired him instead of David Kahn to be their GM; he couldn't have done any worse.
As a Blazer fan, I'll admit that I can't quite come to grips with labeling Oden a bust. Maybe my vision is clouded by what I still hope to see, but when I think about a player being a "bust", I tend to associate the label with guys like Olowokandi. If Oden never gets healthy enough to be the force he was projected to be, then obviously it'll be a lot harder to defend him. I guess I can sort of understand why people are saying it now, but I'm just not ready to accept it yet.
No, he's funny. And he genuinely loves his team. The reason YOU hate him is because LA doesn't have a Bill Simmons. In fact, LA writers are all pretty bad, except for Mark Heisler, who isn't exactly funny, but keeps hammering away at Donald Sterling, so he's doing the Lord's work. Simmons's draft diary is perhaps the only essential piece of sportswriting there is. But he is a total tool about Oden.
Boston started this season 23-5. They've been 27-26 since, and now have the same record as Portland does. I can understand Simmons' angst.
Agreed, on both counts. My theory, is that the innocence and purity of Blazer fandom, compared to the jaded Boston fans, makes him jealous. Or he's just a douche. Take your pick.
Someone with an ESPN account should E-Mail the guy and challenge him to talk about this particular prediction in his next "Mailbag" article. It would be interesting to see if he has the stones to respond.
What's he gonna say? Well, i was wrong about their record, but I was right that there was turmoil, etc. He'll say we got lucky by bein ginjured, because if we hadn't been, he'd think his prediction would have been closer, because there would have been more roster issues and playing time issues. As it is, the injuries helped us out almost. Or something. I dunno. He'd do his usual bit of saying something to incite a response. And he'd get the response he was looking for.
Bill Simmons, suck it!! He thew jabs at the Blazers since last summer. The Blazers have the same record as his "contending" Celtics. And it's only going to go get a lot worse for the Celtics with KG/Allen/Pierce all over the hill. Heres to the Rondo/Robinson/Perk era!
There is no way Greg Oden is a "bust". A "bust" is Kwame Brown, Michael Olowokandi or Darko Milicic; someone who got plenty of minutes and for it was shown they cannot play. Greg Oden is a dominating force that changes the entire way you attack this team. His problem has been injuries and fouls. Greg Oden can be a tragedy, like Sam Bowie or Bill Walton, but he can't be a "bust". A semantic argument, I know, but still important.
