With all due respect to Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, the consensus-turned-actual Nos. 1-2 picks in the NBA draft six weeks ago, they are consensus nothings when it comes to projecting the league's likely Rookie of the Year for 2008-09.
Greg Oden still lists that honor among his unfinished business from last season, a rookie year wiped out by surgery on his right knee. Which makes Rose and Beasley -- in addition to being fortunate not to be the Nos. 2-3 picks in the draft, had Oden come out this year -- definite underdogs for the trophy you only get a shot at once.
Oden, the old/young face of an exciting Trail Blazers team bursting with potential, hasn't played a minute more of legit NBA ball than either Rose or Beasley. But as Samuel L. Jackson purred coolly in Shaft after he had lost his cop's badge, Does that make him less dangerous, or more dangerous? His year in physical therapy, in the swimming pool and in the weight room has left Oden stronger, bigger, healthier and hungrier than ever. He's been forgotten about a little bit, too, always a good thing for a highly touted player; it either motivates him to reclaim his crown or allows him to work with less glare from spotlights.
Oden took the most public, significant step yet Monday in his long comeback, participating in full-contract drills on the Blazers' practice court in Tualatin, Ore., with teammate Channing Frye and assistant coach Dean Demopoulos. Three-quarters of an hour in duration, the workout was open to the media -- a simple but smart marketing move, given the interest in Oden from fans in Portland, nationally and globally -- and the reports were largely ecstatic.
"I've got tingles,"
Blazers assistant general manager Tom Penn told beat writer Jason Quick of The Oregonian after witnessing the sweat session. Quick described a few Oden dunks, one of them so ferocious that it threatened to redefine "shot-clock violation."
What Oden lacked in conditioning (the easiest thing for him to improve in the two months left before training camp), he more than made up for in agility and strength. Romping at less than full speed, with mild intensity on halfway-ready game legs.
"It is an amazing phenomenon, what's going on here with him,"
Demopoulos told The Oregonian. But why take Dean's 11 words for it? Pictures, we've been told, are worth a thousand, and there was one floating around on OregonLive.com that, in time, might rival that grainy 1967 alleged photograph of Big Foot striding through the forest, in the subcategory of frightening man-beast candids from the Pacific Northwest.
In this one, Oden appears to have met Frye in a full-frontal defense of the basket. His right arm is raised straight up to intercept the basketball in any possible flight, but that's academic because Oden's left hand is cupping the ball -- which is still in Frye's grasp but is being shoved downward into the more experienced player's face. Frankly, Frye himself is being stuffed, further evidence of Oden's left-hand development at Ohio State while he recovered from ligament surgery on his right wrist.
In the background, Demopoulos appears to look like he's just seen a real Sasquatch.
Get used to that expression, too, as Oden continues his comeback. What was meant to happen a year ago now appears to be more on track than ever, a rebuilt and restocked team that faded last season boasting both experience and youth, centered on an undisputed once-in-an-NBA-generation big man.
If Oden's knee is as sound as reported and holds up to the basic rigors of the Blazers' schedule, he soon might have the league's mere mortals running for cover. The quickness of a man six inches and 60 pounds lighter, with the thunder of a skilled, athletic post player, all in a king-sized package surpassed only by relative plodders such as Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming.
Add that to a squad with LaMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy and others who prospered from last year's learning season, and newcomers such as Rudy Fernandez and Jerryd Bayless , and my early (and hardly out-on-a-limb) pick for ROY might be busy well into May. Which is more than we expect to say for Beasley and Rose.
Favre mania, NBA style
Bowing to the power of absolutes here last week, I wondered if any episode in NBA history could match the Brett Favre soap opera in terms of 24/7 coverage, raw emotions, star power and general histrionics. My verdict: Nope.
But after nominating, then striking, a few possibilities -- Michael Jordan's two unretirements, Wilt Chamberlain's rumored returns, even Magic Johnson's comeback after more than four seasons out -- I encouraged readers to offer suggestions for some overwrought and overexposed off-the-court stories, ideally pitting legendary player against famous team to keep everything parallel.
Sure enough, you came through, at least in spirit:
• Jon Rehor, of St. Paul, Minn., compared Favre vs. Packers to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs. the Milwaukee Bucks back in 1974-75: "I know Kareem is a quiet introvert who wouldn't pander to the media a la Favre, but going from winning the title in [Milwaukee] to changing his name and getting traded to L.A. ... He was a sure-fire HOFer at the then-glamour position of NBA big man."
Simpler times then. Incredible by today's standards, Milwaukee was able to keep a lid on Abdul-Jabbar's trade ultimatum ("I am not culturally satisfied here"
) from early October until March, according to former Bucks general manager Wayne Embry. "None of my scouting buddies or any of the reporters had mentioned it,'' Embry wrote in his book, The Inside Game. The news eventually leaked and Embry sequestered himself in a downtown Milwaukee hotel to engineer a trade that would be the biggest in the history of the NBA."
Later meetings with the Lakers in Denver and on a flight to Chicago led to a deal on June 16, 1975.
Of the aftermath, Embry wrote: "[Kareem] handled the move with great dignity. In parting, he was careful to say that while Milwaukee had many good qualities, it just was not his bag."
Imagine coverage of that story now in the blogosphere.
• Jay from Manila, Philippines, offered Pat Riley's faxed departure from the Knicks to Miami, the recurring drama between Don Nelson and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and Latrell Sprewell's throttling of P.J. Carlesimo and subsequent trade to New York. The problem there is, superstar coaches aren't as compelling as superstar players with this stuff (and if they were, Larry Brown would hold some sort of career record for sudsy job switches). As for Sprewell, there was too much shelf time from the point of his suspension early in 1997-98, through the lockout to his return, in New York, for the shortened 50-game schedule. Plus, allegiances were more clearly drawn in that one than in the Favre saga.
• "How about Steve Francis refusing to report to Vancouver?"
suggested Greg Albert of Ulsan, South Korea. "Limiting this story to comebacks from retirement is a little bogus since Favre hasn't missed any playing time or games during his 'retirement.' "
Solid point. If only Francis had refused to play for the Lakers, the Bulls or the Knicks back in 1999, the two months between the draft and his trade from the Grizzlies to Houston might have caused more of a stir. The sputtering Vancouver franchise had no leverage and little public clamor on its side, and none of the 11 players in the three-way deal with the Rockets and the Magic ever wowed anyone from that point, Francis more or less included.
• One possibility that I meant to include was Kobe Bryant's fussing last summer, seemingly doing and saying everything in his power to force a trade from the Lakers, then doing and saying a lot of things that made you disbelieve the early reports. It was a mess and it played out in a vastly bigger market than Green Bay. But few fans and even fewer insiders ever thought Bryant truly would be dealt, given the impossibility of getting value back.
When Embry caved to pressure to trade Abdul-Jabbar, he at least didn't have to fit Elmore Smith, Brian Winters, Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgeman under a salary cap. Besides, Bryant wanted to win, something a shredded roster in his new town wouldn't facilitate. When Abdul-Jabbar moved west, he went from 38 victories with the Bucks to 40 with the Lakers, missing the playoffs both times.
