Well Christmas is just around the corner again, and like every year I started getting into the mood this weekend, getting a tree for the house, hanging lights, and of course watching my favorite Christmas move of all time, A Christmas Story.  I love this damn move so much, it just would not be Christmas without watching it 10 times or so on Blu Ray and again when they show 24 hours on TBS.  My first viewing of the season was a little different this year however, because I had an epiphany.  My favorite scene of the movie has to be when the old man gets his "Major Award" aka Leg Lamp Delivered. Everyone is so happy and so excited to see what it is, the antisapation is high, the box is marked in large letters with the word, FRAGILE. Those who know the movie knows the rest of the story, the leg lamp is proudly displayed in the window of the family house. The old man spends his days telling people about his award and brimming with pride, this is until the day that the lamp mysteriouslly breaks, and while the old man trys his damndest to tape it back together, its broken, the leg lamp is dead and nothing can bring it back.

This brings me to my epiphany, Greg Oden is so much like the old mans leg lamp in this movie. When we heard he was coming we were all brimming with pride, so much antisapation over what is to come from the big fella, we dident even really know what we had, but we were all so excited about it. We put up posters, 50 foot likenesses on the side of the rose garden, national advertising about our "Major Award" Now much like the leg lamp, the big fella is broken and we dont know if he can really ever be put back together.

The one major thing that we ignored about Greg however, was that he did NOT come in a big box marked FRAGILE, and he should have. Now before you start thinking I'm some band wagon fan who is jumping ship during hard times, this is not the case. I am a lifetime blazer fan, dad has had season tickets since 87, and I have had my own 1/2 season pack for 5 years now. I am as hard core as they come, I fly the flags, wear the gear and never miss a game weather it is on the radio, on TV, or in person. I love this team and will stand by them until the day I die. That being said,  I just don't see Greg returning any time soon and making an impact like we have all hoped, he now has 2 surgically repaired knees, a foot and a wrist/hand. I hope, pray and wish for a healthy recovery and hope that he is able to come back and make an impact like he was this year before the tragic happaning of last week, but I just dont see it.

The Blazers have broken my heart so many times over the years, but when I saw greg jump and watched the knee cap shatter with essentually no one around him, it may have hurt me more than any injury every before. To make matters worse, I dident even have my tickets that night. I had won SWEET tickets from 95.5 earlyer that day, about 10 rows back behind the Rockets Bench, diretly paralell from where Greg went down. In that moment I felt so much like Ralphy, looking in horror at his dads broken leg lamp, knowing its gone and wont be coming back.