Agreed. The writer makes a good argument and i'm sure we both see the logic in defending the pick. It's proven that dominant centers are harder to find than scoring wing players. Take the 2002 Draft for example: for a while I wanted Caron Butler over Yao. I was skeptical about Yao -- I figured it's boom or bust with the possibility of an in-between-ness of being a Rik Smits type. Meanwhile, I knew Butler was going to be a 20+ PPG player and likely an All-Star. Eventually, I had to convince myself than the NBA will see plenty of players like Butler in the future while a unique talent like Yao comes along about once every 10 years. That being said, I went through the same dilemma before the the 2007 Draft when thinking who Portland should choose. While Oden's freshman season at OSU was impressive, I just didn't see that Dwight Howard type of athleticism or potential to be as dominate, like most were advertising. That was pretty much the only scenario I could have used to justify taking Oden over Durant. We're in total agreement about seeing Durant's destiny as future megastar long before he set foot in the NBA. I will say I have used to the writer's "Do not use what Player A does to judge Player B" argument in defending Kevin Love this year. I think this case is much more extreme, though. I would feel a lot better about this if Oden had proven he has at least some ability to stay healthy and play multiple full seasons. I just don't see that (yet). So in the meantime, this will continue to invoke images of Sam Bowie in my book. Although, much like you I am confident Oden will get it together, work on his game and become more than just a 20-25 MPG energy/boards guy with one post move.
I feel really bad for him. But what's funny is the media crowned him as best big man before entered NBA court.
They didn't say he was miss the rest of the season, like Yao or Iglauskas(younger years). He's going to be out for only a week. This does not make him, Mr. Glass or Sam Bowie v2.
Well in all fairness, the guy hasn't had a full season yet, and has already had a fairly serious surgery. For a big guy, that doesn't look too promising, but hey I really hope he proves me wrong and has a strong career.
Doesn't look good for Oden, he's got no NBA mileage and he still has major knee injuries. Guys have glass jaws, he's got glass knees.
LOL you can dig out a bunch of '06-'07 posts in GARM how many on this board wanted to trade Yao for Oden.
Did Same Bowie get half the attention Oden got? I think Oden has way more hype than Bowie due to the current technologies we have these days. All kinds of sites, blogs, commericals to hype up Oden's arrival to NBA. I think from the way things are going for Oden, he will probably land himself as one of the worse draft picks, and considering the hype, possibly the worse draft pick of all time. Though I hope he does well, but I hate it when Oden is considered a better center than Yao in some fan votings etc. Greg "OCrap" sounds like a good scenario when a portland fan watches him jump
Hi career turned out great. We just couldn't see it because his prime was spent in Europe If Sabonis had been able to come here at an early age we'd consider him the among the best big men the league had ever had.
Yep. Although it looks like Durant may actually turn out to be better than Jordan. He's looking like a 7 ft tall Ray-Allen out there
Even worse, Bill Simmons used to call the time before Oden got drafted as B.O. (Before Oden) LOL But man, he's dad is one hell of a manager, I haven't seen so much hype about a rookie since Sebastian Telfair lol
Hall of Famer Bill Walton describes "Sabas" as "the greatest passing center of all time". Walton says a lot of silly stuff. That quote is NOT one of them. Sabas truly was a magician passing at his size. If he were to have played since he first got drafted the history of the NBA Championships/ "dynasties" might look totally different. Instead of the Showtime Lakers, Bad Boy Pistons, and Da Bulls there could've easily been a few more "Chips" for Rip city Portland. A core of Porter/Drexler/Kersey/Sabonis and add Buck Williams/Cliff Robinson/Duckworth off the bench in the late 80's early 90's could've been special. There's a lot of "what-ifs" and could've beens. Seeing what Sabas could've done in his prime in the NBA is something I really wanted to see.
Us Rocket fans shouldn't be calling any other player Mr. Glass. Boy I hope you sure don't bring karma in this team either.
this just to show big men get hurt often, so not sure why yao was getting the criticism of injury prone. Some people just need to look at oden, bynum, amare, and a couple of knicks centers to see there are plenty of centers getting hurt.
LMAO. The guy missed the whole season his first year. So what the hell are you talking about? Yao played 3 full seasons so get your fact straight.
