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djsunyc
Posts: 44929
Alba Posts: 42
Joined: 1/16/2004
Member: #536
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These days, when Greg Oden seeks solace, he usually heads to a restaurant and looks for a table with a view and a seat for only himself.
He finds it relaxing, he says, just looking out the window and eating. During these moments, usually right after Trail Blazers practice, he can escape the pressures of being himself.
It is a time when no one is analyzing his rookie season with the Blazers. When no one has an opinion of how he should carry himself. And most gratifying, it's a time when no one asks about his injuries, including the latest -- a chipped left kneecap that has caused him to miss 10 games and counting.
"I can just eat, relax and be by myself," Oden says.
Truth be told, he would rather scream, because he is fed up with it all. Fed up with the injuries, which prevent him from playing the game he insists he loves. Fed up with the media, which have portrayed him as injury-prone and a bust. And to a degree, he is fed up with himself and his performance on the court this season.
In Greg Oden's world, everything, and everyone, is seemingly against him.
"It's like, dang, can I ever do anything right?" Oden says.
His body has been besieged by injuries during his two seasons in Portland, the most prominent setbacks to his knees. His right knee required microfracture surgery in September 2007, forcing him to miss all of his first season.
Now, his left knee is threatening to put an end to this season. On Feb.12, in what seemed like an innocuous collision near the free throw line with Golden State's Corey Maggette, Oden suffered a chipped left kneecap.
Since then, everything has been a mess.
The Blazers admit they misplayed the injury, announcing Oden's status was day-to-day, when in fact, team doctors and trainers knew from the start they were dealing with a potential long-term injury.
The day after Oden banged knees, he experienced swelling when he awoke in Phoenix for All-Star weekend. A magnetic resonance imaging revealed the chip in the kneecap, in the area where seven o'clock would be on a watch. Blazers team doctor Don Roberts happened to be in Phoenix for a conference and studied the MRI.
That night, Roberts sent an e-mail to team athletic trainer Jay Jensen, saying the injury could take anywhere from seven days to six weeks to heal. The team figured it would be closer to seven days because Oden returned to the game after he collided with Maggette, proving the knee was stable.
Oden, his teammates and the coaches all thought there was a strong possibility he would play in the first game back from the All-Star break, Feb.18 against Memphis.
But when Oden returned to Portland from the break, there were strong indications his knee wasn't close to healing. As the Blazers were preparing to take the floor against Memphis at the Rose Garden, Oden was having his swollen left knee drained by Roberts. The contents of Roberts' syringe were telling: a significant amount of blood.
"We knew then that the knee had experienced some serious trauma," Jensen said.
Oden, who had never had a knee drained before, said all he could think about was the popular Mike Myers movie.
"When he pulled out the syringe, it looked like Austin Powers' mojo," Oden said.
It was one week into the injury, and the team sent his MRI to Dr. James Andrews, a renowned specialist in Alabama. Andrews came to the same conclusion as the Blazers doctors: No surgery was needed and rest and rehabilitation were the best course of action.
Still, the team continued to list Oden as day-to-day, even though when friends would accidentally tap him on his left knee it would cause him to wince. Even though when he tried to walk up stairs it hurt. Even though attempting to shoot a free throw, which requires a slight knee bend, was too painful.
He missed the Atlanta game. The Clippers. The entire road swing through Texas and Minnesota. All the while, questions, both inside the Blazers locker room and in public mounted: What is going on? Is he really trying to get back? Why isn't he playing by now?
Oden was stung by the mounting criticism. A national radio talk show called him a "lemon" and a "bust." He thought a local columnist questioned his desire to return.
"I get portrayed wrongly, like I don't have a heart," Oden said. "But I sit there and I try to explain to people what is going on, and it's like they aren't listening to me."
There is pain, Oden says, and not just any pain, but biting pain. He said it so many times in interviews that he started saying it more demonstratively, in hopes that his louder tone would finally get someone to believe him.
"I don't know how else to put it: There's a difference between sore and painful, and this is painful," Oden said.
He says if the team pushes him to play, he will do it. He just doesn't know how effective he would be. He can't run as fast, he can't jump as high and he is not as agile.
"Look, I'm tired of sitting; I want to get out there," Oden said. "But damn, if I did go out there and play, it may be worse having me out there. They'd be playing four-on-five most of the time."
On Saturday, 23 days after he banged knees with Maggette, Oden offered no foreseeable return date. He practiced hook shots off to the side during the team's shootaround, but grimaced and complained when the 175-pound Jensen offered defensive resistance from behind.
"If I have Jay back there pushing me and I can still feel it, I mean, what if I have (Denver center) Nene back there trying to bang with me ...?" Oden said.
The team's star, Brandon Roy, said he is beginning to wonder if Oden is done for the regular season after watching him icing his knees during Saturday's shootaround. There are 5 1/2 weeks and 20 games remaining, and Oden has already missed three weeks and still can't run without pain.
"Seeing him this morning, it doesn't look good," Roy said Saturday night. "You have to figure he is going to have to practice and get back into shape, and that takes time."
The Blazers medical staff isn't ready to go that far. Although they don't discount the possibility of Oden missing three more weeks, they say often times injuries like this show rapid improvement in the course of two days.
Oden, however, is impatiently waiting for that rapid improvement.
"To this day, there's still no real timeline," Oden said. "It's 7 to 10 days and then see how it feels. Yeah, well, what if the 7 to 10 days comes and it doesn't feel good? I'm sitting here like everyone else going. 'What the ...?' I hope one of these days I don't feel it, but right now, I do." |
3/9/2009 10:29 PM
..that would have been a squad.
