Two recent NBA headlines irked me this week and from different sides of the country. First, from Portland, news came across that center Greg Oden will miss another season, his second since he was drafted in 2007 after one season at Ohio State. His college career was so short that maybe some forgot how dominant and promising he looked. He came into Thad Matta's program along with high school teammate Mike Conley and wingman Daequan Cook. The three led the Buckeyes all the way to the championship game down in Atlanta before falling to Florida. In his lone season in Columbus Oden averaged 15.7 points and 9.6 rebounds and was named a First Team All-American at season's end.
The Trail Blazers owned the first pick in 2007 and worked out Oden and Kevin Durant and, after weeks of mulling it over, Portland selected Oden with their pick. Oden missed his first season because of knee surgery and through 2010 has only played 82 games for the Blazers. To put that in perspective, after this season the Blazers will have played 328 games since drafting Oden. What makes it even more painful is that Durant, who was selected second, is a legitimate star for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was the scoring champion last season and has played for USA Basketball. Oden meanwhile has gone through a couple knee surgeries and instead of being labeled as a future star he is now considered a guy that could just "contribute" and be a good "role player" for the Blazers.
It is sad to see because for some reason we all love Greg Oden. He's not a punk or an idiot and he hasn't been involved in any off-the-court issues. Yet now I'm beginning to worry we may never get to see his talents unfold before us in the NBA.
On the other coast, down in South Beach, the Heat have won a few games lately and on Wednesday night they demolished the Suns 123-96. Chris Bosh, quiet for much of this young season and basically a non factor for the Heat, put up 35 points in the win. After the game Bosh was asked about coach Erik Spoelstra and he said the Heat played better because they went back to work in practice. "We got back to getting after it again; I guess [Spoelstra] felt he was loosening up a little bit too much," Bosh said. "He knows he has to meet us halfway. He wants to work; we want to chill."
What did he just say????
The players want to chill. Chill as in not practice too hard and just have a few days off. Sorry Bosh, but that aint the way this whole thing works. I never heard Michael Jordan say he just wanted to chill. Kobe Bryant never seems to have a problem meeting his coach halfway. Don't forget Bosh plays alongside LeBron James who earlier this year criticized Spoelstra because he "played too many minutes." The Celtics put together three all-stars and won a championship right away and that's because those guys worked. The Heat will not win a championship if the stars don't figure out what it takes. Remember, only Dwyane Wade has won a championship and he was with Shaq that year. These guys still have alot to figure out before we anoint them the kings of the NBA. 
No comments:
Post a Comment