The Oden We Know

Ask someone who writes about basketball for a living and they’ll probably be able to explain the gradual disconnect they’ve experienced with the fandom of their youth. It’s tough enough to maintain a fair and balanced stance the deeper you wade into the league’s dark waters, and emotions towards a specific team aren’t often luxuries afforded to those that care about objectivity. For some, it’s a conscious choice to leave the passions of youth behind, for others it happens slowly. No doubt there are veteran scribes out there that still wish the best for a hometown team, but it’s not the same that it used to be when one seat among thousands was a ticket to a magical place.
If you’ll excuse a little personal reflection – we’ll get to the basketball bits down below – I remember exactly when my inner fan was killed off. Living out east, watching live Portland Trail Blazers games was rarely possible. But after work every night it was time to fire up the DVR, take notes and write. The more you write, the more you take steps back from being a fan of your hometown team in order to provide a more balanced perspective, but all that would go out the window when Greg Oden pulled his weight up with the rim and slapped the glass. The Blazers had been a tough watch for many years, but Oden could make you feel 13 again as Brian Grant was fighting off Karl Malone elbows in the second round.
The ride didn’t last long. After an up-and-down post-microfracture rookie season, Oden had had a healthy offseason to return to his collegiate form and by the time he finished practicing with USA Basketball and reported early for training camp, he looked leaner and more agile than he had in years. The season started and as long as Oden wasn’t in foul trouble, he was a force. For one joyous month, everything went as planned. Then came December 5th, 2009.
I read the news on Twitter at Kings just off Boylston Street in Boston. Box scores were typically avoided when the game was ready to be watched later on, but it seemed necessary to check in on Oden’s encore to his 13-point 20-rebound performance against the Miami HEAT. Less than five minutes into the game against Houston, Oden went up to contest a shot by Aaron Brooks and crumpled to the floor. Nothing had touched his knee. I sat in silence, waiting while friends drank and had a merry evening. Just get up. Get up. It’s fine. But it wasn’t. Oden was carted off the floor having played his final possession for the Blazers.
Basketball is different now. It’s easy to love the game, but much of the innocent romanticism is long gone. Years ago, it would have been easy to attach the blinders and allow hope to color and carry our Oden prognostications. But that’s all it would have been. Hope. There isn’t nearly enough information available to get a proper read on the situation, for us, for the team and likely even for Oden. And in lacking the ability to predict who Oden will be after multiple knee surgeries and years away from the game, it’s important for us to remember who he was.
Oden On the Glass
We need to be very clear that we’ll be largely discussing Oden’s 21-game 2009-10 season despite generally avoiding such small sample sizes in this space. His prior season isn’t to be ignored, but Oden was a changed player from his rookie to sophomore seasons. That first season, Oden was bulkier and still struggling to regain much of the athleticism he had shown in college. Because reports about Oden’s workouts this summer have said that he looks very lean, we’ll focus on the Oden that had a full offseason to get into shape in ’09 despite having almost no historical evidence of an athlete playing after the amount of surgeries that Oden has had.
While opinions will vary concerning the many aspects of Oden’s game, you’ll be hard pressed to find a critic who doesn’t believe he could have been one of the five best rebounders in the league. Even after dropping weight before his second year, Oden combined both incredible strength and strong instincts for the ball as he was capable of staving off an opposing player with one arm while corralling a rebound with another. He sought out contact as the shot went in the air, pursued rebounds well out of his zone and often came down with second-chances despite being the only offensive player crashing the boards – an important skill given how much emphasis the HEAT put on getting back in transition.
Keep an eye out for a string of rebounds against Chicago in the video below, as his 24-point 12-rebound game against the Bulls was probably his best game as a pro and frustrating Joakim Noah into a technical foul one of Oden’s best individual moments.