Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Channeling Sam Bowie

Greg Oden continued this week, if you will forgive the pun, dear readers, down a trail blazed by former Portland center, Sam Bowie. Oden's injury plagued career, following a dubious drafting ahead of a more talented, but smaller player, parallels Bowie's career thus far. Oden was selected ahead of the scoring sensation of the Zombie Sonics, Kevin Durant. Bowie was selected ahead of the six time title winner, Michael Jordan.

Oden missed rookie season after undergoing microfracture surgery on his right knee. Last year Oden missed six games after injuring his right foot in the season opener, then was out for 14 games after the All-Star break with a bone chip in his left knee. Oden like Bowie showed warning signs of being injury prone in college. (His legs aren't the same length, for goodness sake!)

Bowie had missed two full seasons at Kentucky with a stress fracture in his left shinbone. After being drafted second by the Blazers, behind Olajuwon and ahead of Jordan, he played most of his rookie season before severe and repeated leg injuries limited Bowie to only 63 games over the next three seasons.

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