Lets set the record straight

Okay. So I'm running through some basketball articles today and I come across one from Adrian Wojnarowski titled "Keeping the peace." Here is a link.

In this article the Wojnarowski is basically saying that Phoenix Suns forward Shawn Marion is a spoiled, disgruntled trouble maker for requesting either a contract extension or a trade. While it is true that a trade is unlikely purely for financial reasons, I don't feel Marion's request is enough of a reason to label him a trouble maker. And what I really feel is way off base is this observation, "Still, Marion would be wise stay in Phoenix for as long as the Suns will have him. No matter what he has there – a great team, the best point guard in the sport to get him the ball, a perfect offensive system for him – he always wants something else. In so many ways, he reminds you of Larry Brown. You get the feeling that going elsewhere for more money and more plays would not make him happier..."

It is quotes like this one that have me seriously doubting how much this guy really knows about basketball on the player side of the equation. Strip away all the dollars and the contracts and the caps and lets just look at the player. I don't think Wojnarowski's observation is valid from this pure player standpoint for a couple of reasons.

Marion is a journeyman All Star. But a lot of people don't stop to think about what that means. Before Nash and Stoudemire, Marion was in Phoenix doing his thing. And what was his thing you might ask? His thing was 35 minutes a night, 19 points, 9 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, 2.5 assists per game. 79 games a year for 7 years. How many teams can get that type of production and durability from their stars? Marion isn't flashy, he doesn't growl when he dunks, he doesn't walk on a high wire without a net, or thread laser passes through needle stingy defenses. But what he does do is show up day in, day out and give you superior numbers on both ends of the court. That is not something you can say about any of the other Suns who start. And personally if he wants more money for that, I think you figure out ways to give it to him.

Here is why. I think the Suns owe more of their success to Marion than many are willing to acknowledge. Sure, since Nash showed up the Suns offense has been one of the leagues most prolific scoring machines. But one of the main reasons these guys don't wear rings yet is that while offense packs the house, defense wins championships. Without Marion, the Suns already sieve-like paper charade defense disappears like morning mist when the sun comes up.

Another quote I don't agree with and for the life of me have to wonder has this guy ever seen Marion play?

"And whatever his not-so-veiled resentment of Nash's MVP seasons, just wait until the Matrix is no longer playing with Nash, until he sees how the rest of the league lives without a superstar playmaker to get him the ball, and he'll long to be back where he is now..."

Marion is probably the one Sun who doesn't rely on Nash or set plays to be productive. He isn't the first, the second, or the third option in that offense. And anyone with any legitimate basketball IQ can watch game film and see it. No I think if Marion leaves the Suns will be the ones longing to have what they didn't appreciate. Anytime anyone starts talking about trading Marion vs Stoudemire, it just blows me away. Look at the numbers. Marion was productive before Nash or Stoudemire ever came to Phoenix. When Stoudemire was out, his production went up in one of the most successful Suns' campaigns ever. When Nash is out Marion's numbers do not suffer. This leads me to ask the question, "what the heck gives here, and why is it that no one wants to give this guy the respect and probably the money he deserves?"

To be honest, if Marion is disgruntled, looking at what is being said in the article, I get it. I wouldn't want to stay somewhere that I wasn't fully appreciated either, where they obviously have forgotten how coming to work and producing day in, day out, season in, season out is nothing to sneeze at even if these sports experts don't get it unless they see a highlight on Sportscenter. Lets set the record straight. Phoenix doesn't get past San Antonio, or Dallas unless Marion is wearing one of their jerseys.

Wow. The more I read about the Blazers and Oden...

The more I see this whole situation as a microcosm of of the human condition. Humans you see, want to believe something -- something big. We want to believe something so big that it makes our lives somehow seem -- well, seem like they are more than they are. There are all sorts of examples when you think about it. Once I was listening to a show on NPR about why people who had the least to gain from a Bush presidency were willing to vote for him even if it meant voting against their own self interests. In the story there was this young couple, the wife didn't work, they had 3 kids all under the age of five, and the husband might have had a job at a McDonald's. These people were barely making ends meet. When the reporter asked the husband why he supported Bush the kid answered, "Because he's a self made man. Just like me."

Last week reporters asked the Blazers front office some pretty penetrating questions. Not questions that were in any sense derogatory, but questions that needed answers given the Oden situation. Here is what Kevin Pritchard, Blazers GM had to say.

"We picked the right player. Greg is a world-class human being. He is going to be a great basketball player."

But lets examine these 3 sentences one at a time. Pritchard says the Blazers picked the right player. That means the right player for the Number 1 pick of this year's draft is a player with one leg noticeably longer than the other, has bad knees, wrists, and ankles, has a bulging disk in his back, is 19 and has already had a tonsillectomy and wrist surgery to repair something similar to a torn ACL in his wrist (see my earlier posts) before he has played one single NBA game.

"Greg is a world-class human being." Well Ghandi and Mother Teresa and the Dali Llama are world class human beings too and no one is wasting a lottery pick on them.

"He is going to be a great basketball player." Dude. Every time I read that quote, I want to scream. I want to scream because I look at the list of medical concerns that were known about this kid, I think of the stuff I noticed about him just by watching him play and all I can do is just shake my head in utter disbelief. How bad do you have to want something to be something it isn't to overlook this stuff, then come out of a hospital and say into a bank of microphones, "He's going to be a great basketball player." ? Sigh. Apparently, the kid can't even walk. And how do you see Oden, watch him limp around the gym, then within days watch a healthy Kevin Durant practically glide by you like he's some sort of basketball supermodel and go out with your coveted number 1 pick and use it on Oden? How?

Pritchard also maintains that a "bank" of doctors looked at Oden's physicals, including his knee and they all came back clean. Like I said you see what you want to see. Just like when some folks really wanted to find WMD's in Iraq. All those people wanting something to be the way it had to be. Probably happened in Portland. No one wanted to be the odd man/woman out saying hey, "This intelligence on Oden just isn't adding up." Well when you pay for yes men, this is what you get -- a number 1 draft pick that can't walk without a limp.

Top pick Oden out for season after knee surgery

Yep.

So let me say this now. I was going to write this blog this morning and didn't get to so I missed my chance to say Oden probably wouldn't play this season before the news came out. So, I'll just let my next prediction fly. Greg Oden will never play a full season in the NBA. If he plays a game, I'll be shocked. There I said it. That is my prediction. If you haven't seen the news here is a link.

You know the only way anyone with any real sense about basketball missed this is if they weren't paying attention. Everyone got so caught up in the hype they just threw out all the information about this kid staring them in the face. Like one of my friends, the one who called to let me know the news thus stealing my blog's thunder, said to me, "It's like they dated the hottest girl on campus -- the one with super grades, great parents, awesome in bed etcetera, and decided to ignore the fact she was HIV positive." This would describe not only the Portland Trailblazers, the NBA at large, but also everyone in the media and the whole sports universe. As the saying goes, "The emperor has no clothes and he's just flat out naked."

Oden to have arthroscopic knee surgery? WTF?

I really don't know how to say this. The man hasn't even played in a single NBA game and he has a week immune system and suspect knees already? Sigh... I don't know what the deal is here. But it is becoming real clear that something is amiss. How else do you explain this?

Anyway, the story so far is that Oden felt pain in his knee while working out. An MRI revealed some cartilage issues. No timetable for his return has been set as this will be determined after the surgery is completed.

It is the last thing that worries me. So far there is no timetable for Oden's return. That makes me think this could be more serious than they are reporting. I honestly hope Oden is going to be ok. But it does make me wonder about some things. Oden is still really young and already he has been under the knife twice in one year. Three times if you count the tonsillectomy. The wrist surgery was in June of 2006.

When he underwent surgery in 2006, there was also no timetable. Could this be because something was amiss back then? I wonder? Remember T.J. Ford? One of the reasons that played heavily in Ford's decision to turn pro early was his back. He got the contract first then dealt with the issue in the pros. I wonder if the same thing is happening here? Could it be there is something wrong with Oden's connective tissues that the wrist injury was a precursor for?

Even more intriguing is how they described Oden's wrist injury back then. "The coach compared the injury to a torn ACL in the knee and said the ligament in the wrist is what gives a player the ability to grip the basketball." If you want to see the whole story on this quote, here is a link.

Whatever happens, this is a story worth looking into more deeply.