The Oden Experiment
by rick olivares pic by steve mitchell/usa today
Even before the season
tips off, the biggest story is: can the Miami Heat win a third straight title?
There are various subplots
wrapped around that question. For instance, can LeBron James win another Most
Valuable Player Award? Can Dwyane Wade’s knees take the grind of another long
season and deep playoff run? Is the Miami Heat more of a Big Two than a Big
Three? How big a loss is Mike Miller? Who can finally stop the Heat?
And following an
auspicious pre-season debut last Thursday, you can even add this, can Greg Oden help the Heat/ /live up to his
potential/reprise Bill Walton circa 1986?
After being selected the
top pick of the 2007 draft by the Portland Trailblazers, Oden in a scene eerily
reminiscent of – who else -- Bill Walton, sat out his entire rookie season with
a knee problem. Only Walton played in his first few years and led Portland to
the NBA title in 1977 before succumbing to a series of knee problems that cut
short his career.
I keenly watched Oden make
that run with Ohio State (only to be stopped by Joakim Noah’s Florida Gators in
the NCAA Finals) with Mike Conley Jr. during his one glorious year with the
Buckeyes. And I remember thinking to myself when Ohio State won the Big Ten,
“This must have been what it was like to watch Bill Russell when he was at the University
of San Francisco.” Oden was tall, mobile, athletic, and powerful. He looked
frightening; a game changer.
But as timeless, a
basketball truism there is, there is only one Bill Russell.
I thought that Oden would
be a monster in the NBA and become the league’s most devastating center since
Shaquille O’Neal left Louisiana State. Instead, he’s been limited to 82 games
since being drafted. That’s the total number of games every team plays in one
season spread out in five disappointing years.
According to the Elias
Sports Bureau, Oden has played the fewest numbers of games for top picks in six
years with 82. Walton is second with 223 while LaRue Martin chalked up 271 and
David Robinson 314.
Incredibly, Oden, Walton,
and Martin were all top NBA picks BY THE
PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS while the San Antonio Spurs tabbed Robinson. Martin
was the top selection in 1972 while Walton was take number one two years after.
Days after Oden underwent
his third microfracture injury, an exasperated Portland waived the
seven-footer. Third!
What is microfracture
surgery? In my understanding, it is a procedure where the surgeon makes us of
precision and purpose-built tools to arthroscopically access the knee. Small
pressed holes are made on the knee and the bone marrow and stem cells are
stimulated to build fibrous cartilage that will help the knee. It is preferred
to complete knee replacement.
In Will Carroll’s article
for the Pro Basketball Prospectus 2009-10, he listed 18 NBA players who
underwent microfracture surgery after suffering a knee injury. The list
includes John Stockton, Anfernee Hardaway, Brian Grant, Kerry Kittles, Eduardo
Najera, Chris Webber, Allan Houston, Adrian Griffin, Jamal Mashburn Matt
Harpring, Pat Garrity, Jason Kidd, Zach Randolph, Kenyon Martin, Amar’e
Stoudemire, Rashad McCants, Sean May, and Oden.
Of that list Hardaway,
Harpring, and Martin underwent the procedure twice. Oden is the only one thus
far to go through three operations.
Due to advances in medicine
and surgical procedures, many players are now able to make comebacks. However, Carroll’s
research shows that every player’s shooting, scoring and minutes played
averages go down. They are robbed of their explosiveness and athleticism. Two
other players – Terrell Brandon and Bob Sura – never even went back to the NBA.
It is because of this fact
that league general managers are often loath to sign players who underwent
microfracture surgery.
Nevertheless, you cannot
fault teams for still hoping against hope that a player like Oden call pull a
Bill Walton and give a team one good year for a run at a NBA title.
Walton, in his first of
two years with the Boston Celtics, defied time and his multitude of injuries as
he played like a possessed man in 1986. He won the Sixth Man Award that year as
the Celtics won the last of the three titles of the Larry Bird era in Boston.
In many ways, Walton’s
success with Boston, was mimicked by other team looking to land that big man to
provide quality minutes and similar impact. The Los Angeles Lakers found great
success in getting Mychal Thompson to backstop Kareem Abdul Jabbar. In 1987,
the ascending Detroit Pistons acquired center James Edwards from the Phoenix
Suns and he gave them scoring and rebounding from the five-spot after Bill
Laimbeer went to the bench for a rest. With Edwards, the Pistons went to three
consecutive NBA Finals winning two from 1989-90.
During the 1990-91 season,
the Chicago Bulls broke the mold without a dominant force at the center
position.
This year, back-to-back league
champions, the Miami Heat, are hoping that lightning will strike twice for
three. They signed Oden to a one-year contract and the seven-footer saw action
last Thursday against the New Orleans Pelicans where he dunked and hauled down
two rebounds in four minutes of action.
If the Oden experiment
works (ala Walton in 1986), it will be a huge coup for the Heat organization. If
it doesn’t, then this could possibly be his last stop.
Ironically, Oden’s first
official points in the NBA came against the Miami Heat on November 12, 2012.
While the makings of a
Miami dynasty are the bigger story, I believe that Oden, if healthy and
successful this season, will be one of the feel good stories of the year. He is the – for lack of a better term – the
underdog in the league’s top dog team. And I am rooting for him to succeed.
