It would be driving your car down the same road and crashing it twice :)

Doubtful. By all means it’s good to hear different point of views so we can talk about them and debate them. Contrary intelligent views like what you just shared is definitely one of the reasons I love this site. Please do share. I think it helps ground us other fans and prevent us from becoming too fanatical.

Does Oden wear those shoes with an extra inch in the sole of the shorter leg? There was a girl with shoes like that in my grade school.

Ya know, people have mentioned that it is worrisome that no one seems to know the cause of the tear that made micro necessary… but did we know how Z-Bo hurt his knee? Darius? Amare’s was a mystery too, I remember, and completely unexpected, especially after he completely destroyed Duncan and the Spurs in the playoffs. How did Kidd hurt his knee?

To the best of my recollection with all of these cases, the knee started hurting and they played on it and then it hurt too much and they all knew something was wrong. There wasn’t a bad landing or horrible looking leg-going-wrong-way like Andrew Bynum had; no specific event any of them could point to and say “Ahh, here’s where it was”. I could be wrong, but that’s what my memory tells me, and I feel pretty sure about Amare and Z-Bo’s cases. Amare’s case is similar to Oden, where a guy was playing awesome (with Oden being awesome in practice) and not really showing any sign of being hurt, but the pain wasn’t a normal pain so they get the knee checked out and wouldn’t ya know it, they need micro.

So, I don’t worry about what the specific event was. I agree he needs to stay long and lean, like a stronger Dwight Howard/KG type. Those guys have the longest careers and fewest injuries. They are strong enough to help prevent injury, but not so muscley that it weighs and burdens the joints and ligaments. From recent reports, Oden is down to the 280’s, which is about where they want him to play. I don’t worry about the weight, and I trust that all of the Blazer’s management team is focused on getting him super healthy and at the exact weight and strength we need him to be.

Perhaps if Shaq stayed lean yet buff like his early years, he would still be a force and wouldn’t have to take half a season off every year. If Yao wasn’t so big, I don’t think it would be unreasonable to believe his feet wouldn’t betray him. Like we know from Walton and Kevin McHale, once a big man’s FEET betray him then it’s all downhill from there. The knee can be wonky, the back hurtin’, but they can still be good. If the feet give out, they can’t even move.

Now as far as the Simmons quote goes, I totally see that as a homer-fan telling himself he didn’t want Oden anyways. Even with his foul troubles, Oden was CLEARLY amazingly young and athletic in summer league. Robert Parish never took one step from the free throw line and dunked it two handed and slapped his hands on the backboard. Oden’s alleged “old walk” is silly to me, with it either being a young man pimp strut or caused by his uneven legs, both not being a big deal (and he’s supposed to have an insert in his shoes to even out his legs, so I bet he was just struttin’). Simmons was watching Oden walk at the Espys, and wasn’t watching draft prospects file by. Just other regular NBA superstars. We’ve seen Oden walk in video, seen him play, and even after his injury he doesn’t walk like an old man. Before the KG trade, Celtics fans were feeling cursed and burned and wanted to believe that Oden wasn’t gonna be any good.

The GM who said Oden’s knees were bad in the pre-draft physical was likely passing misinformation, and most people pointed it out to be Danny Ainge (again, a Celtic fan/employee wishing Oden wasn’t gonna be good just as Ainge often said Roy wouldn’t be that good). According to KP and Oden’s agents (who, of course, have a vested interest in poo pooing this rumor, but still), the Blazers and the Sonics were the only teams who got to look at his detailed x-rays and physical reports. No one in the East did, and certainly not Ainge. I suspect Ainge is still a lil’ burned from being Pritchslapped the previous year, and spread a little spiteful rumor to make KP lose a little luster. I think if Oden’s knee was truly that messed up from the physical and the X-rays, I doubt he woulda’ been drafted #1. It would be too much of an obvious worry that he was injury prone right from the beginning, and I believe KP and friends and the doctors when they say Oden looked young and strong and bound to get the friction on. I don’t believe a “anonymous East conference GM” who doesn’t have the guts to reveal himself leaking a rumor. That sorta misinformation happens all the time.

According to draft folk and doctors, the uneven leg can be solved with an insert in the shoe and the bulging disc can hopefully be fixed with core exercise and strength training. Maybe it won’t though; every big man has these sorta injuries. Worst case scenario, his back hurts and he gets offseason surgery sometime in the future.

I am an optimist, and being optimistic often makes good things happen for ol’ Mortimer. I admit I am a homer and I really, really, really want Oden to be okay. I am not 100% unbiased here. Time will tell, though I think there are decent explanations for most of the previous problems. His face DOES look old because of the extra skin; he doesn’t have wrinkles, just skin folds. His entire skull has extra skin, even the top of his head has Sharpei-esque extra skin. Plus with his shirt off, in his swim trunks like that one halftime segment showed, he looks like a young super buff Nubian King. I trust KP’s judgement in the pre-draft exams, and I believe what the docs say about Oden being a completely normal NBA 19 year old inside. Aside from his face, Oden looks completely normal otherwise. Once I examined these things further, I don’t worry about him having some weird ‘old young man’ syndrome.

While I am completely aware that I simply just want to believe everything will be okay, I do believe everything will be fine. Oden will be one of the best centers ever and this lost year will be a distant memory, a bit of trivia when discussing his legacy. This year spent learning and developing his post game and getting strong might be the best thing to ever happen to him.

Mortimer

“b). He not only looks older than his age, he looks eons older. As you fretted, is everything on the inside of his skin equally aged?”

You can’t be serious?

I didn’t know your were trying to be qute (cute).

I think he can make the big three much like San Antonio.

I’m inclined to agree on the Jazz as I don’t think they should have won two against the lakers. Then again the lakers may just suck more than we give them credit for (much like the celtics).

I know New Orleans is VERY VERY good, I just can’t see Peja staying healthy enough for more than three years and year after next we’ll be making the big push.