The Great HOPE To The Great NOPE

First, he is the next Wilt Chamberlin. Then, he is “wilted.” Greg Oden goes from the great HOPE to the great NOPE quicker than anyone else in the National Basketball Association. If you have been watching the NBA playoffs you know exactly what I am talking about. In game one of the Portland Houston series, Oden scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds. Last night, Oden plays 12 minutes and fouls out. Oh, he also provided his team with a donut hole in the scoring column.

Greg Oden is the prime example of these “want to be the next big thing” college basketball centers that come out of school early. We all say they will be great because we get lured in with all their ability to dunk the ball. That’s because no one can guard them in high school and college. Therefore, these big time centers come into the league and have no ability to score because their footwork is lousy. Oden dunked every basketball he scored while at Lawrence North High School and Ohio State.

Take a look at the statistics. These are the numbers that Greg Oden had after having a good performance. One night he goes for 17. The very next game he scores 2 points. Another night he goes for 24 then he goes for 10. Here are more: 14 then 5, 16 then 8, 2 then 13.

Can we finally admit that Portland massively screwed up and got a bust in the draft? Oden will never be a primetime center in the NBA. Great defensive player, but that is all. The guy is turning into the next Stanley Roberts. Sorry to make you turn your heads Portland, but Oden averages 4.0 fouls a game in just less than 21 minutes of average playing time. How long do we have to go before we can say that the Blazers franchise got no better whatsoever after drafting Greg Oden.

Lets not even get into the injury situation. Oden is like a really nice car that is in the garage all the time. Looks nice, got it for a good price ($$$), have some nice flat monitors in it, but have too many problems and are always in the shop. That's Oden in a nutshell at the moment.

Quit with the bad luck jargon too Portland fans. Karl Malone missed eight games in elite eighteen-year campaign. Oden is obviously injury prone.

All that being said, the Trailblazers are all but done in the series verse Houston. It took a Brandon Roy “Superman” performance and a jail cell defensive performance on Yao Ming for Portland to win game two. This series is over…