Blazers waive Greg Oden

[scottie]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7692811/source-portland-trail-blazers-waive-former-no-1-overall-pick-greg-oden

Sam Bowie/Michael Jordan... Greg Oden/Kevin Durant...

[Art Vandelay]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/76...pick-greg-oden

Sam Bowie/Michael Jordan... Greg Oden/Kevin Durant...

I will argue to my deathbed, Bowie was the right choice at the time/. Michael wasn't Air Jordan yet (he soon was), Clyde played the same position and was obviously an All-star at worst. There was a huge whole in the center, and Bowie was fantastic at Kentucky. No one kills Houston, who had the first pick that year for taking Dream over Michael, it was the smart choice.

I never wanted Oden over Durrant. Greg's ceiling was never as high as Durrant's. He is a great kid, and seems to legitimately feel bad about letting Portland down. However, it was a dumb choice at the time and even worse now.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

When they were holding the first draft pick they had a billboard that said "Honk once for Oden, Twice for Durrant" (really smart columnist Gregg "Two Gs" Doyle wrote a great column about it http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/10237447a)

I honked once, but someone next to me also honked. I have always wondered if the Blazers were confused by the whole "honk" system and were able to accurately tabulate the votes. It would be a shame if more votes had actually been cast for Durrant, but were mistakenly counted as double votes

[smokymountainrain]

I will argue to my deathbed, Bowie was the right choice at the time/. Michael wasn't Air Jordan yet (he soon was), Clyde played the same position and was obviously an All-star at worst. There was a huge whole in the center, and Bowie was fantastic at Kentucky. No one kills Houston, who had the first pick that year for taking Dream over Michael, it was the smart choice.

I never wanted Oden over Durrant. Greg's ceiling was never as high as Durrant's. He is a great kid, and seems to legitimately feel bad about letting Portland down. However, it was a dumb choice at the time and even worse now.

Except Bowie wasn't fantastic and he had major injury issues at UK. 10 pts, 9 rebs his last season in college.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Except Bowie wasn't fantastic and he had major injury issues at UK. 10 pts, 9 rebs his last season in college.

Didn't a Sam Bowie UK team destroy BYU in an NCAA game? I don't know if that was before or after college injuries.

[MartyFunkhouser]

A crazy day indeed for the Blazers.

Fire your coach
Waive the 1st pick in the draft from 2007.
Traded 2 starters from the team including your 2nd best player
Desperately begged any team to please take your fat starting PG in exchange for nothing and failed

I feel really bad for LMA.

[Jacob]

I will argue to my deathbed, Bowie was the right choice at the time/. Michael wasn't Air Jordan yet (he soon was), Clyde played the same position and was obviously an All-star at worst. There was a huge whole in the center, and Bowie was fantastic at Kentucky. No one kills Houston, who had the first pick that year for taking Dream over Michael, it was the smart choice.

I was too young at the time to remember, but this sure seems like some revisionist history to me.

1984 Wooden Award recipient: Michael Jordan
28 ppg on 51% shooting as a rookie.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Except Bowie wasn't fantastic and he had major injury issues at UK. 10 pts, 9 rebs his last season in college.

And that's putting it mildly. Didn't he miss almost two entire seasons? He looked destined for greatness, then had massive leg problems, and played one more year at college where he was about half the player he was before injury. That is not the same as picking Akeem Olajuwon.

Michael wasn't Air Jordan yet (he soon was)

But he was a two-time first team all-american who also dominated the Olympics. Portland wasn't picking Bowie over the best player to ever play the game, but they were definitely picking a broken big man over the best player in college basketball, and for some reason pretended like Drexler and Jordan would have both been incapable of playing the SF spot.

[smokymountainrain]

Didn't a Sam Bowie UK team destroy BYU in an NCAA game? I don't know if that was before or after college injuries.

Not sure, but in his 2nd season at UK, prior to missing two entire seasons consecutively, did average 17 ppg, but even then wasn't an exceptional rebounder or shotblocker. Was never a terribly efficient scorer for a big man either.

[MartyFunkhouser]

If the Blazers had drafted Michael Jordan he would have suffered a catastrophic career ending injury or potentially been murdered in a mob hit for gambling debts. Also, Bowie would have gone on to be a dominant center.

[TripletDaddy]

I enjoy listening to these younger morans talk about the perception of that draft when they were all probably 5 years old at the time. Why wasn't Jordan drafted first? Seems like a no brainer given all the accolades.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Oh you're just so persecuted! Some of us actually knew Durant would be much better than Oden in the very beginning. You and the Blazers didn't. LOL @ you.

Banned

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Hakeem was much better than Bowie and he didn't have the injury issues. He averaged about 16.8 points, 13.5 rebounds and 5.6 blocks his last year at the University of Houston. He ended up being one of the best dozen or so players of all time.

There were all kinds of warning signs on Sam Bowie, Portland didn't heed them. There were no such signs with Hakeem (Akeem at the time like BGRTHANUAMIGO says).

[Art Vandelay]

I was too young at the time to remember, but this sure seems like some revisionist history to me.

1984 Wooden Award recipient: Michael Jordan
28 ppg on 51% shooting as a rookie.

It was obvious to most people after his rookie year (I believe that is when he dropped 63 against the Celtics, in Boston) how amazing Michael was. I was a senior in HS and wanted the first Air Jordans - my mom came home with some Pony knock-offs instead - after watching him a few times on the CBS Sunday game (pre-ESPN/TNT). However, in college MJ only averaged about 20 points/game and played within a very structured Dean Smith system. The blazers had Clyde Drexler, who up until Michael destroyed him in the 92 finals, many thought was as good, if not better than 23. Drafting the same size and same type player when you are so deficient in the center (and this was back when centers mattered), was not a smart move.

My 2 cents...

[MartyFunkhouser]

Oh you're just so persecuted! Some of us actually knew Durant would be much better than Oden in the very beginning. You and the Blazers didn't. LOL @ you.

Fuck you.