basketball

Last year’s NBA finalists Boston Celtics and LA Lakers were both in action last night as the 2008-2009 NBA season got underway. Neither Kevin Garnett, nor Kobe Bryant stole the headlines though. That honour went to a man playing in his first ever NBA match, and for all the wrong reasons.
 
Greg Oden played only 32 college games because of a wrist injury. Still, in 2007 he was drafted first by the Portland Trail Blazers. Unfortunately though Oden’s rookie season never happened as he opted for micro fracture surgery on his right knee.
 
Portland were deemed luckier than a four-cleaved clover wrapped around a horseshoe to secure that pick at the expense of Seattle, who now have prodigious talent Kevin Durant, and Boston, who now have the Championship and Kevin Garnett. Funny how things turn out.
 
So Oden’s NBA debut has been exactly sixteen months in waiting since draft day. The stage was set nicely too, Portland travelled to the Staples Centre in LA to take on the Western Conference champs, Kobe Bryant’s Lakers. However after just two and half minutes, Oden went down. By the second half he was off with a ‘sprain to the foot’. An inconclusive X-ray means he’ll be having an MRI scan today.
 
Innocuous news for one player is ominous for another.
 
Afterwards Oden said these things happen. They do, but only to certain players. After all, jumping up and down is fairly common in basketball. If he can’t do this for longer than 150 seconds without getting injured, it’s worrying news. And there’s nothing to suggest he can; all 7-foot of Greg Oden has been injured for a long time. My concern is that he has begun the dreaded domino effect, where one bad injury just leads to another. British fans think Jonny Wilkinson.
 
I can sympathise greatly with chronic injuries and I wish Oden well. The NBA needs as many title contenders as possible and a fit Oden would certainly push Portland in that direction.
 
Their fans though, will be worried. Remember this is the franchise that made the worst ever draft pick in 1984. Like in 2007, Portland opted for a 7-foot giant, Sam Bowie, who had also suffered from serious injuries in college, with the second choice in the draft. Like Oden, Bowie had great potential as a leading big-man.
 
But he continually struggled with who did they turn down the chance to draft? Ten-time All-star John Stockton, MVP-winner Charles Barkley and a certain player called Michael Jordan.
 
Ouch!

Has your season been plagued by injury too?  Perhaps you just want to remain injury-free?  Take out a cheap trial subscription to Sports Injury Bulletin to keep up-to-date with the latest techniques for injury treatment and prevention - plus, we'll send you a Free special report 'How to Recover from the Most Common Sports Injuries'!
 

	Author:	The Sports Nut (The Sports Nut's profile, The Sports Nut's blog)
	Posted On:	Wed, 2008-10-29 18:34
	Tags:	basketball
	Comments:	0 comments, go to comments