And a little more info:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3017538
Oden likely out for rookie season after knee surgery
ESPN.com news services
Updated: September 13, 2007, 2:36 PM ET
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Celebrated Trail Blazers rookie center Greg Oden, the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, will likely miss the 2007-2008 season after undergoing knee surgery Thursday, the team said.
"Greg had an arthroscopy and a microfracture surgery today," team physician Dr. Don Roberts, who performed the surgery, said in a statement posted on the Trail Blazers' Web site. "He was found to have articular cartilage damage in his right knee. The area of injury was not large and we were able to treat it with microfracture, which stimulates the growth of cartilage.
"There are things about this that are positive for Greg. First of all, he is young. The area where the damage was is small and the rest of his knee looked normal. All those are good signs for a complete recovery from microfracture surgery."
The 7-foot center is expected to be on crutches for up to eight weeks. It likely will take 6 to 12 months for full recovery, the team said.
The Trail Blazers will hold a 4:30 p.m. ET news conference to discuss Oden's situation. The procedure was performed in Vancouver, Wash.
Oden described the knee pain in an entry Tuesday on his personal blog:
"On my vacation earlier this summer i got up off the couch and remember my knee having a sharp pain in it. That was about a month ago. I didn't tell anyone because i didn't want to seem like i was complaining or making excuses for anything. Plus i wasn't doing anything at the time i realized it hurt, so i figured it couldn't be anything big.
"After a couple of weeks, i had to finally tell someone so i went to St. Vincent's Sports Performance (where i worked out at before draft) and got my knee looked at. That was right before i moved to Portland for good. My knee was swollen since i was there. I finally just said that i need to tell my trainer because this is not normal. We went to the doctor's the next day to get a MRI and that night me and my mom ended up in the doctor's office being told that I have to get surgery. It's a light one, just a scoop, but still it's just another setback. I would like for me to be playing and not seem like i'm a high-maintenance player, but things just keep popping up."
This is Oden's second health problem since the Blazers drafted him in June. He had a tonsillectomy in July after struggling in two Las Vegas summer league games.
Oden, despite being hampered by a wrist injury during his freshman (and only) season at Ohio State, averaged 15.7 points and 9.6 rebounds in leading the Buckeyes to the national championship game. He had 25 points and 12 rebounds in the loss to Florida.
The Trail Blazers were the surprise winners of the NBA draft lottery and chose Oden over Texas forward Kevin Durant, who went to Seattle.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
). After all, why could I not see that he was destined to be the next Ewing, Admiral, The Dream etc? It is because crap like this happens as well all other kinds of stuff. The NBA in particular (and sports in general) are just so highly unpredictable due to a high degree of randomness.
