Is Greg Oden the Reemergence of Sam Bowie in Portland?
September 14, 2007 by Staff
Filed under All Sports, Misc.
No one can possibly say that Greg Oden is Sam Bowie…yet. But can he be deemed injury prone? Quite possibly.
Afterall, there is no ignoring the wrist ailment that plagued him at Ohio State, and now with this knee microfracture surgery, he has made himself more prone to injury then he has ever been.
However, some people have bounced back from this injury. Most notably, Amare Stoudamire underwent microfracture surgery after the 2005 NBA Playoffs. He went on to play sporadically during the ’05-’06 season, but did not play any meaningful regular season games, nor any playoff series games. But Amare did bounce back with a thunderous 2006-2007 NBA season, and was a 1st Team All-NBA selection for the first time in his career.
However, there are also those who did not bounce back from microfracture surgery.
Allan Houston underwent microfracture surgery and lost the explosiveness on his pull-up jump shot. His surgery also rendered him fairly unusable on defense, and forced him out of the NBA.
Jamal Mashburn also underwent microfracture surgery, and he lost his leg drive and strength going to the basket. He has said that post-surgery he was incapable of finishing around the basket in the same manner in which he did it prior to surgery, and that completely altered his game and the way he played.
And of course there is Chris Webber, who underwent microfracture surgery in 2003, and obviously has not been the athletic big man he was before the surgery. His knees have rendered him to a completely below the rim game, and he is not nearly as physical around the rim as he once used to be, especially on the boards.
So will Greg Oden’s surgery cause him to end up like Webber, Mashburn and Houston, or will he experience the same love from the Basketball Gods that Amare got? Well, age certainly says that Oden is more likely to bounce back the same way Amare did, because Amare was about 10 years younger than everyone that list when he had his surgery.
There are no signs that Greg Oden will be Sam Bowie though. Those signs won’t come until Kevin Durant is labeled the next Jordan and all of a sudden, Oden is looking like a result of an organization that was doomed to repeat its history.
