Simmons with some quality blasts at the Blazers

So now it's the Blazers' fault that Oden was drinking and partying? My God, the guy stole millions of dollars from the organization, and they were supposed to babysit him, too?

 

If Oden was as good at basketball as he is at blaming everybody else for his problems, the Blazers would have had a heckuva team.

 

You must be an ignorant fool to blame only Oden for what happened, especially with the recent news that came out. Of course, Oden deserves a lot of the blame, but so do the Blazers. They played it cheap and didn't appoint anyone to take care of their #1 pick and once-in-a-generation center.

Of course they should have had someone babysit him. You think he only cost the team the millions he made from his contract?
Let's say things happened differently, he never takes up drinking, heals up after the first injury and is in much better shape/weight and goes on to a healthy career.

Now you can argue that the Blazers cost themselves hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues, playoff appearances and possible championships. Yes, he could have been that good. All because they wouldn't dish out 60k a year to some shmuck to watch Oden all the time.

The entire management fabric of the organization needs to be fired. They aren't trying hard enough.

 

I guarantee the team had someone keeping an eye on him. If they were willing to hire Travis Outlaw's brother to watch him, why wouldn't they have someone watching their #1 pick? You're making an awful lot of assumptions about what the team did or didn't do. They can't watch him 24/7. He's an employee, not a child and not a prisoner.

With that said, I blame the team for how they handled his rehab, and I think the training staff in Portland is terrible, but whatever he did off the court on his own time is his own fault. You can't lay the blame on the team for Oden developing a drinking problem, or partying too much. The team didn't adopt him.

 

Simmons is talking out of both sides of his mouth. He says the Blazers are a laughingstock because they drafted Oden instead of Durant (although for at least a year Oden was the consensus #1). Then he says with a "real" time Oden would have been productive. So which is it, Billy-boy? If Oden's a bust, he's a bust anywhere. If the city of Portland and/or the Blazers are so toxic they destroy any player it wouldn't matter whom the Blazers draft, Durant would have been a bust here as well. You can argue one or the other but not both.

It's of course a lot easier to speculate than to do actual investigative journalism. Simmons and his apologists assume the Blazers were either unaware of Oden's problems or did nothing about them. How do they know? Isn't it at least as likely that they did know, and did try? But you really can't handcuff someone to Oden 24/7. You can work with him. You can make suggestions. But if as he says he was an alcholic, believe me, the only one who could change that would be Oden. You can offer all the help you want, you can offer incentives and punishments, but only one person can make the decision how Oden will live his life and that is Greg Oden.

I had a friend, not rich and famous, but smart, highly educated & with a good job who lost EVERYTHING to his alcoholism, his job, his wife, his home, car, life savings, friends, health, spent time in jail, finally died at in his 30's when he crossed a street too plastered to notice the traffic. He had chance after chance to get into rehab, occasionally tried but left after a few days. In the final analysis no one could help him but himself. I sincerely hope with all my heart that Greg Oden does not end up like that.

 

Simmons was one of the very few to have written he'd pick Durant over Oden. Looking back, he nailed it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=nbamockdraft/070627

 

Maybe not, but they had to have seen it happening and obviously did nothing to stop it or help him.

 

Simmons gets a lifetime pass in the credibility department, IMO.

 

What are you going to do? Force the entire team to have an intervention with Oden? Portland babied him too much, IMO. Remember how he got Paul Allen's bedroom on Blazer One? I wonder what Roy and LMA thought about that favortism?

 

Simmons did nail that draft. He was talking Durant>Oden well before anyone that summer.

He's still the biggest douche on the planet though.

 

Fez, you know what they say about a stopped clock.

 

It picks Durant, then hangs its hat on that one choice for years while making fun of Portland?

 

I like the one about "you know what they say about blind prostitutes" better

 

That wasn't a big risk. They were considered a toss-up. No-lose. Even though supposedely 28 out of 30 GMs would have taken Oden, it was Oden by a hair in each case. The Blazers themselves had a hard time deciding. So...taking the contrarian view was no-risk. If they both panned out as expected, picking the close second was not a whiff, and no one would remember or care he liked Durant better. However, by taking the contrarian view he can act like he's smarter than everyone else if it turns out the other way, which, again, was not a big gamble. He's a calculating douche.

 

He didn't just "take" Durant, though. He said he was a sure thing, and would be tearing up the West three years after he was drafted.

Which is exactly what happened.

 

Of course Durant was a sure thing. No one, but no one thought differently. Everyone thought and said Durant would tear it up -- including Kevin Pritchard. Oden was also considered a sure thing (although I think most thought he was a slightly higher risk-reward option, big men win titles, blah, blah, blah). Except that Oden couldn't keep from breaking something for more than 15 minutes.

 

durant was crap until he got westbrook there to help him, and westbrook was crap until he got harden there to help him, and harden is only good because he has durant and westbrook to help him

science

 

I said at the time that you can't go wrong with either player. I actually preferred Durant, because I thought he'd be an instant 20ppg wing that would be hard to guard.

Bill Simmons gets a lifetime vouch of credibility. Yet, when I say tomato you say tamahto.

Trollish behavior at its finest.

 

Durant isn't surprising anyone with what he's doing. Everyone knew he was going to be one of the best players in the NBA.

 

At least this forum has moved past the point where we have posters claiming that:

A) Oden isn't a flop
B) Oden isn't injury prone
C) Oden was the "right" choice anyway

For awhile there, all the "I am in denial!" posts were getting tough to stomach.