The post that wouldn't be contained

I have been trying valiantly to hold the line on my Blazer obsession.  Attending games, poring over stats, roaming the internet for every morsel of Blazer coverage, and checking BE thrice daily is bad enough without me starting to post too.  But certain things just have the feeling of inevitability to them...  you can try to contain them but you know it is temporary at best.  That idea of an unstoppable development is also a part of the fan experience for me.  Being a fan has caused me to sprout rooting interests all over the NBA and much of the fun of the sport for me is following these interests: rooting for and against players, teams, coaches, and even owners (see: Cuban, Mark).  

A good example is players you pass over in the draft or trade away.  There is a natural aversion to seeing those players dominate.  Fans want to feel good about the moves their team makes and their own players.  Let's say for example that your team drafts Andrea Bargnani.  Does it feel good to watch Brandon Roy blow up?  Not really.  So as the season goes on you are rooting for Bargnani to be better and Roy to trip up.  You are rationalizing your teams pick and hoping it pans out.  But there is this aura of inevitability around Roy that you can't shake.  The little voice in your head is telling you that Roy is slowly joining death and taxes on that list of things you can't avoid.  You rationalize harder (maybe even inexcusably voting for Bargnani for rookie of the year).  Eventually the game is up...  Roy ascends to all star status and bargnani sputters to mediocrity.  You knew it was coming, you just didn't want to admit it.  Which brings us to...

Oden and Durant

When they were drafted I was an Oden guy, but I had no problem with seeing them both blossom into stars.  When Greg went down with the knee, a rooting interest was born.  The only thing that could make the loss of Greg and the stalling of his career more painful was watching Durant storm the league.  So I started rooting against KD.  Box score watching, L counting, and hoping for failure.  During his rookie season there was much reason to rejoice - Durant was a volume chucker on a terrible team.  He couldn't pass or defend.  He made bad teammates worse.  He was a terrible player, overrated by the gullible for his empty scoring stats.  Oden, by any advanced metric, had a better impact on his team by sitting in street clothes doing nothing than Durant did with his putrid play.  There was only one teeny tiny problem...  I knew it was coming.  I couldn't rationalize it away.  His ascension was inevitable and I knew it.  His second year he still didn't do much winning, passing, defending, or teammate improving.  But he did a little more of them than year one.  And the chucker tag died completely to the tune of 47% shooting.  This year the thunder are improving.  The defense is sound, his teammates are better with him on the floor than off and his scoring is still sublime.  The point is, I have given up on rooting against KD's imminent rise.  What's the point?  He will fix whatever needs to be fixed (next up: passing?) and keep getting better.  He has it.  

So what about Greg?

Greg sat out a year.  He came back and got hurt again.  He came back tentative, slow, robbed of his explosiveness, and looking like a rookie.  He traveled, he got blocked from behind, he got rim checked, he got stripped.  He fumbled passes, he fouled, he turned it over, he chipped his kneecap.  And all the while even though advanced stats told of value and efficiency and potential, he just didn't look right.  Everybody with a rooting interest against him howled about the great bust Greg Oden.  The only people that kept the faith were (some) Blazer fans and a few wacky statheads that were easily drowned out by the Stephen A Smith types that know everything.

But something happened along the way.  Something perhaps unexpected.  Something magical.  

Greg got the aura.

His detractors knew it.

It is beyond delicious watching them squirm while it unfolds.

When Greg has a couple of subpar games due to foul trouble or turnovers, his detractors try to keep the hope alive.  They rationalize.  They blow smoke.  They get ratings.  But at the same time they must have that  terrible inescapable little feeling.  This can't last.  It's just a matter of time.  All his points and rebounds and blocks are just stuck behind a dam.  They are coming no matter what... unstoppable and inevitable as a river.  When the dam fails then all hell is going to break loose and the talking heads had better have flood insurance.

The Simmons' of the world only have one hope left for them to be right, and that is health.  That is why they rail so hard on the injury narrative.  They are subconsciously hoping their last hope.

Stay healthy Greg...  this is just getting fun