You just have to wonder what Greg Oden has done to deserve his bad luck since arriving in the NBA after his third season was ended abruptly by a fractured kneecap over the weekend.
The top pick in the 2007 Draft missed the whole of his rookie season and another 20 games last season, but had just started to show the reasoning behind Portland picking him at No 1 with some excellent performances, including matching his career high for points with 24 against the Bulls.
Sadly, this means the previous talk of Oden being brittle will reach a crescendo, although the injury came about in freak fashion when he clashed with Houston’s Aaron Brooks attempting to go for a block.
The seven-footer will have surgery this week after an MRI scan revealed the significance of the injury and his absence will be felt badly by the Trail Blazers, who also have injury worries about LaMarcus Aldridge at the moment despite him continuing to play hurt.
The other knock on Oden’s game since he went professional is that, some claim, he is far too nice – something that again came to the fore in the wake of his injury.
Teammate Brandon Roy said: "He kept apologizing to us when he was getting dragged off the court. He felt he let us down."
General manager Kevin Pritchard added: "I can't tell you how much of a great kid Greg is. He'll pull through this. I know him. He's a tough kid and he cares. I'm telling you that he was more interested in the score of the game than how he was. I've never seen anything like that.''
Portland is also without Nicolas Batum and Travis Outlaw at the moment as well, which will leave much of the onus on Joel Pryzbilla to provide some big minutes in the paint – NBA Tips certainly suggest that his performances could go a long way to deciding whether the Blazers can keep themselves in the playoff race.
By Andy Charles - A professional sports writer who blogs about NBA Predictions
