Oden chose Miami

[nbaman99]

http://tracking.si.com/2013/08/02/greg-oden-miami-heat-agree/

Former No. 1 overall pick center Greg Oden and the Miami Heat have agreed to terms on a two-year deal, according to multiple reports. Oden’s deal is worth $1 million for next season including a player-option for $1.1 million for 2014-15.

[Texas_Ranger]

Good that there are so many threads for a player that will get injured the second he steps on the court.

[TheyCallMePro]

I knew it.

[sammy]

Dumbass w/no knees goes to the cheat(lol)! Good riddance!

[DJR210]

Have a great 2 game season goofball.

[Vash StampedE]

Fucking bandwagoner

[heyheymymy]

fuck him anyway

[Juggity]

He won't be the first or the last to piggyback on Lebron's greatness. Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Mike Bibby, etc. Washed up superstars or would-be superstars willing to sell themselves cheap to put the ring on the resume.

I'm not mad at him. He probably made the right career move for himself. If I was a free agent, I'd pick the "Lebron" team over any other just like I'd pick the "Jordan" team over any other. It's as close as you can get to guaranteeing you win a title.

Obviously it would have been a fun experiment for the spurs, but realistically, how long is Oden going to last? Will he even make it half way through the season playing less than 10 minutes/game before the chronic issues sideline him again? He is physically impaired by the kind of injuries that can't be reversed. His legs are different lengths. His gait is causing degeneration of knee tissues. I don't think Oden was the "missing piece" and I don't think he has even the potential anymore to be better than Tiago Splitter.

[rjv]

good. now he can be someone else's headache.

[tmtcsc]

Circus show, D-League fodder.

[Budkin]

Defeated by Miami again. :lol

[LakerHater]

I think we all knew it!!

...do the cHeat have cap space?

[HI-FI]

He didn't fulfil a need for us. Furthermore I have a feeling Heat don't win it next year. Still, this has been a depressing offseason following the shittiest postseason in my life tbh.

[tmtcsc]

Oden called a press conference to announce he'd be taking his crutches to South Beach. :toast


Ah hell yeah Miami, its on!!! Where's my locker?!?
http://blazers.topbuzz.com/trailblazer-pics/d/3020-2/Greg+Oden+in+crutches.jpg

[Vash StampedE]

:(
Defeated by Miami again. :lol

[PlayNando]

fk dis scrub

[rjv]

:(

not exactly defeated. oden is not exactly larry o'brien

[elmanutres]

brandoy roy was kinda like oden. he made a comeback but had to retire again halfway through the season. i'm very sure the same will happen. he may say he's doing great but he hasn't proven he can survive a 82 game season. Maybe the heat did the spurs and pelicans a favor.

[Russ]

not exactly defeated. oden is not exactly larry o'brien

If you saw a picture of Larry O'Brien in his finals years, you might rethink your opinion.

[dbestpro]

He is an admitted alcoholic. Miami is a great choice for him. He wants the nightlife. He would have been better off staying away from the game. His future is setup for imminent disaster.

[rjv]

If you saw a picture of Larry O'Brien in his finals years, you might rethink your opinion.

touche'

[purist]

He didn't fulfil a need for us. Furthermore I have a feeling Heat don't win it next year. Still, this has been a depressing offseason following the shittiest postseason in my life tbh.

You are either very young or very dumb.

[Strategic]

Ho hum

[SpurPadre]

I told you guys months ago the guy was a front-running, glamor whore cripple who knew long ago he was Miami-bound. Kids like him simply think they're too cool to go to San Antonio. The way to lure kids like this isn't through free agency, it's through the draft and trades...and now, we look to see what we can get by next February's trade deadline. Fuck this AARP looking cripled ass bitch.

[UnWantedTheory]

The hell you say!?

[32fastest]

It feels shitty. I'm still not over the finals loss and this just feels like salt in the wound. I will be so glad when 2013 is over.

[TE]

He didn't fulfil a need for us. Furthermore I have a feeling Heat don't win it next year. Still, this has been a depressing offseason following the shittiest postseason in my life tbh.
tbh the universe always finds a way to equilibrate things...

[HI-FI]

tbh the universe always finds a way to equilibrate things...
+1
Good stuff. I wasn't saying this was the worst time in my life, far from it, I think some douche above implied that in my post. Just saying in terms of sports, its definetly been the longest hangover/shitty feeling. But I agree with your post, just gotta wait to see how this shit all balances out.

[td4mvp2k]

brandoy roy was kinda like oden. he made a comeback but had to retire again halfway through the season. i'm very sure the same will happen. he may say he's doing great but he hasn't proven he can survive a 82 game season. Maybe the heat did the spurs and pelicans a favor.:toast to odens season startn n endn be4 u kno it

[LakerHater]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BQtIoDjCIAAjgmO.jpg

[TheGreatYacht]

Investigation: The Curious Case Of Greg Oden And Zig Ziegler

What Does Zig Ziegler Say Happened Between Himself And The Blazers?


Ziegler said that his goal in publishing his account "wasn't to discredit or take away from the Portland Trail Blazers or their medical staff." Despite those expressed intentions, Ziegler's account does not paint the organization and its medical staff in a particularly favorable light.


His story portrays an organization that took a confrontational rather than open-minded approach to his evaluations, an organization with a key medical staff member fearing for his job on at least one occasion, an organization that was informed that Oden had potentially been coached to cheat one of his tests, and an organization that initially seemed interested in following his rehabilitation recommendations before moving on without keeping him involved in the process.



Ziegler said that he agreed to test Oden shortly after he was first contacted by the Blazers. At that time, Oden, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, was finishing up his rehabilitation from a microfracture surgery on his right knee that cost him his 2007-2008 rookie season. He had recently received clearance to resume basketball activities but Ziegler said that he was told that the team was looking for additional assurances that Oden was good to go.


Ziegler's tests use motion capture technology as a subject walks, runs, throws and squats. They are essentially standardized and can be given to anyone. They provide functional range of motion grades on a 1-to-100 scale. Ziegler said Oden was a willing participant in the first round of tests, which involved involve walking on a treadmill at various speeds and inclines, and were conducted at a Beverly Hills hotel in August 2008.


"Greg was the nicest, politest, most respectable, 'Yes sir, no sir, thank you sir'," Ziegler recalled. "I was really impressed with him as a person. I have been around a lot of athletes over the years and you sense a lot of arrogance from some. I didn't get that from Greg at all. I sensed a very humble person who sounded like he had been raised properly. I informed him what we were going to be doing. Sometimes I get the feeling from athletes that, 'I have to do this anyway.' With him, I got the idea that he was genuinely interested in getting the test done to prove that he was actually ready to go."



Oden's results on the biomechanical testing "fell short" of average, Ziegler said, because the muscles around his right knee were not strong enough to provide proper balance and weight distribution. As a result, Oden's left knee was overcompensating, taking on an undue amount of stress and force, even during the simple walking portion of the test. At that point, Oden's left knee had not yet been operated on during his time with the Blazers.



"We looked at his left leg, which was considered healthy, and his right leg was doing nowhere near the same range of motion or accepting the same amount of work load and transferring that up to the rest of his body," Ziegler said.



Ziegler added the following details in a follow-up email: "Based on a comparison to ideal biomechanics, Greg failed his functional movement screen. The average Trail Blazer scored over 53% while Greg Oden scored 44% once and 37% and 36% on the two other trials."



The tests revealed, in Ziegler's opinion, that a particular series of strength-building exercises were needed before Oden should return to the court. He passed along those findings to Portland's staff during a dinner meeting and phone conversations. In those exchanges, Ziegler characterized Blazers trainer Jay Jensen as "defensive" and worried that perhaps his job was on the line because of the results of the initial test.



"In the initial telephone conversation with Jay, one of the things he said was, 'Am I in jeopardy?' Tom reiterated to him that he wasn't. Tom's goal was to make sure the athlete was really ready... Jay was defensive. His comment was, 'I'm doing most of what's on this list already.'"



Ziegler said that he responded by telling Jensen that he "was sure" Oden was already doing the exercises and repetitions -- and perhaps more -- but that he wanted the Blazers to focus on Oden's technique and attention to detail during the exercises because a failure to execute them properly would not produce the necessary improvements in muscle strength.



"I said to Jay, 'All I want you to do is spend a little more time and attention to detail on how he's doing the exercise and explain to him the importance of doing the exercise correctly as opposed to achieving the number of repetitions.' At that point, Jay said that he understood and he would begin to do that."



Ziegler, though, says now that he wasn't convinced at the time that his advice would be followed.

"With all due respect, and I know you record these [interviews]," he said. "You've got your assistant GM sitting on the phone and they just spent a few thousand dollars to get a test done on your athlete... You're pretty much going to say what you're supposed to say at that point, with all due respect to Jay."

His feelings from that phone call were not the only negative experience Ziegler recalled having with Portland's staff. At a meeting over a steak dinner near the Blazers' Tualatin practice facility, Ziegler said multiple members of Portland's medical staff openly laughed at him as they attempted to poke holes in his findings and recommendations.



"That meeting with them, the athletic trainer and the team doctor," Ziegler remembered, "Tom was late to dinner by about an hour, and in that hour, I tell you, I took ridicule, I took arrows and bullets that were all focused on discrediting the assessment and technology rather than trying to figure out how we came to the conclusions. The questions you're asking right now, I never got from them. When I made recommendations, they literally laughed at me."



Ziegler and Portland's staff disagreed, in particular, about whether Oden should be fitted with a full-length shoe lift that could help compensate for his "leg length discrepancy." Ziegler said he laid out his thoughts about how a lift could relieve pressure on Oden's ankle joint.



"I really took some time to explain that to them and the first comment out of the team doctor was, 'Nobody does a shoe lift. You've got to be kidding me. What are you thinking? Who's going to make that?'" Ziegler said that he suggested that Nike, Oden's sponsor, could make such an insert but the conversation was quickly dropped.



What Does Zig Ziegler Say Happened After His Assessments?



Less than three months later, on Oct. 28, 2008, Oden took the court for Portland's season opener against the Lakers in Los Angeles. He played 12 minutes and sprained his ankle, an injury that kept him out for the following two weeks.
Ziegler stopped short of saying that Oden was rushed back to the court. Instead, he said that Oden could have returned in the same amount of time if he had properly completed the strength building exercises that he had prescribed. But Ziegler said that a re-test of Oden showed that, while some progress had been made, it appeared that Oden had been coached to do certain things in an attempt to trick the walking portion of the test.



"He had achieved results that were impossible," Ziegler said. "I mentioned this to Tom, it looked as if someone told him what we were looking for on the test...Once we get into the running tests, the athletes forget about what they might have been trying to do to trick the test. They focus on running. His second set of running results were more in line with what we expected because he couldn't cheat them."



Ziegler decided to throw out the "impossible" results and recommended additional strength-building exercises.
"If I had been responsible for his return to the court, all due respect to what they are doing there," Ziegler said. "He would have gotten back on the court at the same time, but those injuries he's suffered since then, I can almost guarantee that those wouldn't have occurred."



In fact, Ziegler argues that Oden's left patellar fracture, suffered on a non-contact play in a Dec. 2009 game against the Houston Rockets, was linked to his failure to properly rehabilitate from the microfracture surgery on his right knee. The injury, Ziegler claims, was foreshadowed by other issues, such as reported tendonitis and pain in his left knee.



"At the time we did the first test, one of the things that Tom or Jay mentioned to me was that Greg was having tendinitis or pain or discomfort in his patella tendon," Ziegler said. "In my results, I indicated that the compensating on his left side for his right leg issues are contributing to that patella tendinitis. They were completely linked. Everything in the body is linked. If my right knee starts to bother me, the natural thing for the body, compensation, is to shift that load over to the other leg. That leg starts to get fatigued, that's when you start to develop those chronic injuries like patella tendinitis or Achilles tendinitis. That's one of Tiger Woods' issues, he has Achilles tendonitis because his right leg is still a problem. Same thing going on with Greg."



Ziegler agreed with a Beaverton kinesiologist's view that Oden's left leg was a "ticking time bomb" because of the strength imbalance in the muscles surrounding his right knee.



"That's exactly the phrase I would use," he said. "Some people call them scare tactics. I like to call it the truth. If you don't address these issues -- and I said this to the Blazers -- Greg will have a major injury in the next 12-15 months. Those were my words exactly, expressly as they were laughing at me. Laughing at the recommendations. At the end of the day, this is about Greg, this isn't about me or you guys. This is about Greg and what can we do to make it work, and Tom reiterated that."


What Does Zig Ziegler Advise Now?



After the patella fracture, Oden underwent a microfracture surgery on his left knee in Nov. 2010 after another non-contact incident during his rehabilitation process. In Feb. 2012, Oden underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on his right knee and, finally, another microfracture knee surgery on his left knee. He also developed blood clots in his left ankle that delayed his fifth knee surgery.


Despite that injury history, Ziegler said that Portland made the wrong decision in releasing Oden at the Mar. 15 trade deadline.



"If I were the Portland Trail Blazers, I wouldn't have cut him," he said. "I would not have cut him. What I would have done is figured out exactly what his issues are and began to address those issues. Even if it took me another year.... I would have kept him, I would have hired someone to work one-on-one with him. I know we see this in professional sports, where you hire someone to go out with the athlete on the weekends and to stay with them in a social setting. I would have hired someone to make sure that Greg Oden was doing exactly what he needed to do, eight hours a day for a year if I had to. I would get my investment back."



With years to reflect on his experiences with the Blazers, Ziegler sounded disappointed. In particular, he found Portland's refusal to provide additional one-on-one medical attention and what he perceived as its insistence on treating Oden like any other player to be confusing.



"Literally, I'm scratching my head as you're talking," Ziegler said. "Greg Oden's injuries are preventable and have been preventable from Day One. Unfortunately in Greg's case, which is the case with many athletes, you get stuck in following protocols, so to speak. By that I mean, if you tear an ACL, every insurance company, every doctor, every physical therapist has certain protocols they want you to follow. None of those protocols focus on addressing what might have contributed to the injury like a muscular imbalance. Right now, we try to do things with athletes in physical therapy and the medical setting, generically. And you can't. Especially when it comes to an athlete or a sports-related injury, you have to get more specific and start to try to figure out the root cause of the problem instead of following protocols."



Further, Ziegler suggested that Blazers owner Paul Allen did not commit sufficient resources and staff to Oden during his recovery period and that the Blazers were -- like many professional organizations -- in a position where staff members feared being catalysts of change.

"I know Portland's medical staff is doing the best they can with the situation and cards that they are dealt," he said. "This is more about a change to the industry that is needed. A change in particular to professional sports. This is more about that than making them look bad. I know they did the best that they can and I know in many cases, when I've dealt with official athletic trainers, the last thing they want to do is be the guy who tried to implement a change and screw something up... Maybe that means the Jay Jensens of the world and other athletic trainers out there who are tasked with trying to keep multimillion dollar athletes on the court or on the field, maybe that means they need more help, maybe they need a bigger staff. Maybe they need more support from ownership and management. That's probably what it really comes down to."


He said on Wednesday that he did not communicate with anyone besides Penn in Portland's management and that he wasn't sure how far up the chain of command his recommendations were reaching.
http://www.blazersedge.com/2012/4/12/2942283/investigation-the-curious-case-of-greg-oden-and-zig-ziegler

[Baseline]

Investigation: The Curious Case Of Greg Oden And Zig Ziegler

What Does Zig Ziegler Say Happened Between Himself And The Blazers?


Ziegler said that his goal in publishing his account "wasn't to discredit or take away from the Portland Trail Blazers or their medical staff." Despite those expressed intentions, Ziegler's account does not paint the organization and its medical staff in a particularly favorable light.


His story portrays an organization that took a confrontational rather than open-minded approach to his evaluations, an organization with a key medical staff member fearing for his job on at least one occasion, an organization that was informed that Oden had potentially been coached to cheat one of his tests, and an organization that initially seemed interested in following his rehabilitation recommendations before moving on without keeping him involved in the process.



Ziegler said that he agreed to test Oden shortly after he was first contacted by the Blazers. At that time, Oden, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, was finishing up his rehabilitation from a microfracture surgery on his right knee that cost him his 2007-2008 rookie season. He had recently received clearance to resume basketball activities but Ziegler said that he was told that the team was looking for additional assurances that Oden was good to go.


Ziegler's tests use motion capture technology as a subject walks, runs, throws and squats. They are essentially standardized and can be given to anyone. They provide functional range of motion grades on a 1-to-100 scale. Ziegler said Oden was a willing participant in the first round of tests, which involved involve walking on a treadmill at various speeds and inclines, and were conducted at a Beverly Hills hotel in August 2008.


"Greg was the nicest, politest, most respectable, 'Yes sir, no sir, thank you sir'," Ziegler recalled. "I was really impressed with him as a person. I have been around a lot of athletes over the years and you sense a lot of arrogance from some. I didn't get that from Greg at all. I sensed a very humble person who sounded like he had been raised properly. I informed him what we were going to be doing. Sometimes I get the feeling from athletes that, 'I have to do this anyway.' With him, I got the idea that he was genuinely interested in getting the test done to prove that he was actually ready to go."



Oden's results on the biomechanical testing "fell short" of average, Ziegler said, because the muscles around his right knee were not strong enough to provide proper balance and weight distribution. As a result, Oden's left knee was overcompensating, taking on an undue amount of stress and force, even during the simple walking portion of the test. At that point, Oden's left knee had not yet been operated on during his time with the Blazers.



"We looked at his left leg, which was considered healthy, and his right leg was doing nowhere near the same range of motion or accepting the same amount of work load and transferring that up to the rest of his body," Ziegler said.



Ziegler added the following details in a follow-up email: "Based on a comparison to ideal biomechanics, Greg failed his functional movement screen. The average Trail Blazer scored over 53% while Greg Oden scored 44% once and 37% and 36% on the two other trials."



The tests revealed, in Ziegler's opinion, that a particular series of strength-building exercises were needed before Oden should return to the court. He passed along those findings to Portland's staff during a dinner meeting and phone conversations. In those exchanges, Ziegler characterized Blazers trainer Jay Jensen as "defensive" and worried that perhaps his job was on the line because of the results of the initial test.



"In the initial telephone conversation with Jay, one of the things he said was, 'Am I in jeopardy?' Tom reiterated to him that he wasn't. Tom's goal was to make sure the athlete was really ready... Jay was defensive. His comment was, 'I'm doing most of what's on this list already.'"



Ziegler said that he responded by telling Jensen that he "was sure" Oden was already doing the exercises and repetitions -- and perhaps more -- but that he wanted the Blazers to focus on Oden's technique and attention to detail during the exercises because a failure to execute them properly would not produce the necessary improvements in muscle strength.



"I said to Jay, 'All I want you to do is spend a little more time and attention to detail on how he's doing the exercise and explain to him the importance of doing the exercise correctly as opposed to achieving the number of repetitions.' At that point, Jay said that he understood and he would begin to do that."



Ziegler, though, says now that he wasn't convinced at the time that his advice would be followed.

"With all due respect, and I know you record these [interviews]," he said. "You've got your assistant GM sitting on the phone and they just spent a few thousand dollars to get a test done on your athlete... You're pretty much going to say what you're supposed to say at that point, with all due respect to Jay."

His feelings from that phone call were not the only negative experience Ziegler recalled having with Portland's staff. At a meeting over a steak dinner near the Blazers' Tualatin practice facility, Ziegler said multiple members of Portland's medical staff openly laughed at him as they attempted to poke holes in his findings and recommendations.



"That meeting with them, the athletic trainer and the team doctor," Ziegler remembered, "Tom was late to dinner by about an hour, and in that hour, I tell you, I took ridicule, I took arrows and bullets that were all focused on discrediting the assessment and technology rather than trying to figure out how we came to the conclusions. The questions you're asking right now, I never got from them. When I made recommendations, they literally laughed at me."



Ziegler and Portland's staff disagreed, in particular, about whether Oden should be fitted with a full-length shoe lift that could help compensate for his "leg length discrepancy." Ziegler said he laid out his thoughts about how a lift could relieve pressure on Oden's ankle joint.



"I really took some time to explain that to them and the first comment out of the team doctor was, 'Nobody does a shoe lift. You've got to be kidding me. What are you thinking? Who's going to make that?'" Ziegler said that he suggested that Nike, Oden's sponsor, could make such an insert but the conversation was quickly dropped.



What Does Zig Ziegler Say Happened After His Assessments?



Less than three months later, on Oct. 28, 2008, Oden took the court for Portland's season opener against the Lakers in Los Angeles. He played 12 minutes and sprained his ankle, an injury that kept him out for the following two weeks.
Ziegler stopped short of saying that Oden was rushed back to the court. Instead, he said that Oden could have returned in the same amount of time if he had properly completed the strength building exercises that he had prescribed. But Ziegler said that a re-test of Oden showed that, while some progress had been made, it appeared that Oden had been coached to do certain things in an attempt to trick the walking portion of the test.



"He had achieved results that were impossible," Ziegler said. "I mentioned this to Tom, it looked as if someone told him what we were looking for on the test...Once we get into the running tests, the athletes forget about what they might have been trying to do to trick the test. They focus on running. His second set of running results were more in line with what we expected because he couldn't cheat them."



Ziegler decided to throw out the "impossible" results and recommended additional strength-building exercises.
"If I had been responsible for his return to the court, all due respect to what they are doing there," Ziegler said. "He would have gotten back on the court at the same time, but those injuries he's suffered since then, I can almost guarantee that those wouldn't have occurred."



In fact, Ziegler argues that Oden's left patellar fracture, suffered on a non-contact play in a Dec. 2009 game against the Houston Rockets, was linked to his failure to properly rehabilitate from the microfracture surgery on his right knee. The injury, Ziegler claims, was foreshadowed by other issues, such as reported tendonitis and pain in his left knee.



"At the time we did the first test, one of the things that Tom or Jay mentioned to me was that Greg was having tendinitis or pain or discomfort in his patella tendon," Ziegler said. "In my results, I indicated that the compensating on his left side for his right leg issues are contributing to that patella tendinitis. They were completely linked. Everything in the body is linked. If my right knee starts to bother me, the natural thing for the body, compensation, is to shift that load over to the other leg. That leg starts to get fatigued, that's when you start to develop those chronic injuries like patella tendinitis or Achilles tendinitis. That's one of Tiger Woods' issues, he has Achilles tendonitis because his right leg is still a problem. Same thing going on with Greg."



Ziegler agreed with a Beaverton kinesiologist's view that Oden's left leg was a "ticking time bomb" because of the strength imbalance in the muscles surrounding his right knee.



"That's exactly the phrase I would use," he said. "Some people call them scare tactics. I like to call it the truth. If you don't address these issues -- and I said this to the Blazers -- Greg will have a major injury in the next 12-15 months. Those were my words exactly, expressly as they were laughing at me. Laughing at the recommendations. At the end of the day, this is about Greg, this isn't about me or you guys. This is about Greg and what can we do to make it work, and Tom reiterated that."


What Does Zig Ziegler Advise Now?



After the patella fracture, Oden underwent a microfracture surgery on his left knee in Nov. 2010 after another non-contact incident during his rehabilitation process. In Feb. 2012, Oden underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on his right knee and, finally, another microfracture knee surgery on his left knee. He also developed blood clots in his left ankle that delayed his fifth knee surgery.


Despite that injury history, Ziegler said that Portland made the wrong decision in releasing Oden at the Mar. 15 trade deadline.



"If I were the Portland Trail Blazers, I wouldn't have cut him," he said. "I would not have cut him. What I would have done is figured out exactly what his issues are and began to address those issues. Even if it took me another year.... I would have kept him, I would have hired someone to work one-on-one with him. I know we see this in professional sports, where you hire someone to go out with the athlete on the weekends and to stay with them in a social setting. I would have hired someone to make sure that Greg Oden was doing exactly what he needed to do, eight hours a day for a year if I had to. I would get my investment back."



With years to reflect on his experiences with the Blazers, Ziegler sounded disappointed. In particular, he found Portland's refusal to provide additional one-on-one medical attention and what he perceived as its insistence on treating Oden like any other player to be confusing.



"Literally, I'm scratching my head as you're talking," Ziegler said. "Greg Oden's injuries are preventable and have been preventable from Day One. Unfortunately in Greg's case, which is the case with many athletes, you get stuck in following protocols, so to speak. By that I mean, if you tear an ACL, every insurance company, every doctor, every physical therapist has certain protocols they want you to follow. None of those protocols focus on addressing what might have contributed to the injury like a muscular imbalance. Right now, we try to do things with athletes in physical therapy and the medical setting, generically. And you can't. Especially when it comes to an athlete or a sports-related injury, you have to get more specific and start to try to figure out the root cause of the problem instead of following protocols."



Further, Ziegler suggested that Blazers owner Paul Allen did not commit sufficient resources and staff to Oden during his recovery period and that the Blazers were -- like many professional organizations -- in a position where staff members feared being catalysts of change.

"I know Portland's medical staff is doing the best they can with the situation and cards that they are dealt," he said. "This is more about a change to the industry that is needed. A change in particular to professional sports. This is more about that than making them look bad. I know they did the best that they can and I know in many cases, when I've dealt with official athletic trainers, the last thing they want to do is be the guy who tried to implement a change and screw something up... Maybe that means the Jay Jensens of the world and other athletic trainers out there who are tasked with trying to keep multimillion dollar athletes on the court or on the field, maybe that means they need more help, maybe they need a bigger staff. Maybe they need more support from ownership and management. That's probably what it really comes down to."


He said on Wednesday that he did not communicate with anyone besides Penn in Portland's management and that he wasn't sure how far up the chain of command his recommendations were reaching.
http://www.blazersedge.com/2012/4/12/2942283/investigation-the-curious-case-of-greg-oden-and-zig-ziegler That's a lot of words to convey a simple fact: Dude is far too injury-prone to mess with.

[venitian navigator]

I'm really disappointed about his decision, 'cause he could have been a big hope for the years after the Duncan era.
That said, I also think that this choice was the worst for him, career oriented.
In S.A he would have been treated like a precious investment for the future, would have been taken care off for every thing and could have become better learning the offensive game from the best possible guy (and God knows if Oden needs to train his offensive game...expecially after three non playing years).
In Miami he instantly become the best option at center from day 1...so, despite all the insurances he received from whoever, he's at a big risk not to be taken care enough.
Imho, Spurs (with a crowded center position consisting in Tim, Splitter, Baynes and Pendergraph all able to play the role) in their current situation, could have given Oden a one year completely dedicated to his on court reabilitation and game improvement (wonderful training environment for a big).
Miami has the highest expectations possible of all the teams involved in his sweeptakes...and ther's no worst situation than this for an injured player just coming back to action 'cause, at the end, if your team needs you, you're supposed to play, despite your risky phisical conditions.
And I don't think that Greg is going to learn something from training neither with Anderson, Anthony or Haslem (all of them rely on defensive and athletic skills) nor from Bosh (totally diferent kind of player).
Imho dumb decision and horrible advise and counseling from his part.
For the Spurs, in any case, a big disappointment, but maybe a blessing in desguise.
First 'cause push our trainers to focus and give time to the improvement of promising players we already have at that position.
Second, 'cause this kind of decision seems to speak from itself about the player willingness to follow the obviously better path...for achiving results, you have to sacrifice your immediate expectations and work on yourself in the rifgt way. That's our culture. Oden, despite been, probably, a wonderful and kind guy, is still following the syrens....

[Bruno]

It's far from surprising, Heat were the favorites to get him and it's a good choice for Oden. After all the injuries/surgeries he has had, it would be awesome if eh could be back ad stay healthy. best of luck to him.

For Spurs, it's a little disappointment in a disappointing offseason. You also had to wonder how their ability to offer Oden only a min contract has hurt them. Had Spurs keep Neal instead of going after Belinelli, they would still have $3.4M left on the MLE to offer at Oden. Could it have convinced Oden to joint them? The question will remain up in the air.

Spurs can now fill their 15th roster spot if they want it. At that stage of the summer, there isn't a single player available that could make a difference so Spurs can do whatever they want with that spot. A trade would be the way to really improve the team but trades usually don't happen in August/September.

[kobyz]

The signing of Marco Polo looking more and more stupid from day to day, it's incomprehensible How we let Neal go, not only we got a lesser player in Belly, it also cause us to miss on other free agents... But don't worry, we still have Jeff "the next David Robinson" Pendergraph.

[SenorSpur]

No surprise there.

[look_at_g_shred]

We all knew it. Why make another Oden thread?

[xmas1997]

Miami got him, period.
Time to move on because nothing we can do to change it.
Next.

[TheGreatYacht]

What a fucking clown. Greg Oden took 3 years to decide that the cHeat were his destination. He's just like everyone else. Oden rather play for pu$$y and $$$. He rather pass up the opportunity to play and learn alongside the greatest PF of all time in Tim Duncan and a coach that is one of the best at managing player minutes in Gregg Popovich. I hope Oden blows his knees and retires for good.

Now this brings up an interesting topic. How much does the FO's recruitment of players or lack thereof have to do with players passing up the Spurs as a destination all the time? We've never hear of Pop or Timmy recruiting players lately. Who remembers the good old days and Pop's famous words to Michael Finley "for the first time in you career, I want you to be selfish and do what's best for you" or when Tim Duncan and Pop tried to recruit Karl Malone?

Do players pass up the Spurs as a destination because the FO doesn't put much effort into recruitment or are the Spurs really that much of a boring organization/city? Could it be a combination of both? Too bad we'll never have the answers to these questions.

[FireMicoHalili]

Miami got him, period.
Time to move on because nothing we can do to change it.
Next.
This. Except recognise the fact that the FO will almost always pull off a move that rarely appeals to us. Until the season comes in full swing

[Strategic]

He'll get some PT in Miami this year. With Pop's offense he probably wouldn't have seen the court until next season. I think Baynes will eat his lunch.

[cjw]

What a fucking clown. Greg Oden took 3 years to decide that the cHeat were his destination. He's just like everyone else. Oden rather play for pu$$y and $$$. He rather pass up the opportunity to play and learn alongside the greatest PF of all time in Tim Duncan and a coach that is one of the best at managing player minutes in Gregg Popovich. I hope Oden blows his knees and retires for good.

Now this brings up an interesting topic. How much does the FO's recruitment of players or lack thereof have to do with players passing up the Spurs as a destination all the time? We've never hear of Pop or Timmy recruiting players lately. Who remembers the good old days and Pop's famous words to Michael Finley "for the first time in you career, I want you to be selfish and do what's best for you" or when Tim Duncan and Pop tried to recruit Karl Malone?

Do players pass up the Spurs as a destination because the FO doesn't put much effort into recruitment or are the Spurs really that much of a boring organization/city? Could it be a combination of both? Too bad we'll never have the answers to these questions.

If it was really down to Spurs and Heat, why WOULDN'T you choose the Heat as a center when your competition there is much weaker (Haslem & Birdman, neither of whom are really centers) and you may actually get a chance to play? Here you're going to be behind an established three man big rotation, with a developmental guy (Baynes) and a floor spacing shooter (Bonner) in the mix too for minutes. He has skills (though probably rusty as all hell) and needs to showcase he can play decent minutes to warrant that next contract. Duncan would be a better teacher here, but he doesn't want to be the fourth or fifth big on the team.

[kobyz]

Great signing by Miami, Oden could be the difference for them between threepeat and not threepeat.

[rjv]

It's far from surprising, Heat were the favorites to get him and it's a good choice for Oden. After all the injuries/surgeries he has had, it would be awesome if eh could be back ad stay healthy. best of luck to him.

For Spurs, it's a little disappointment in a disappointing offseason. You also had to wonder how their ability to offer Oden only a min contract has hurt them. Had Spurs keep Neal instead of going after Belinelli, they would still have $3.4M left on the MLE to offer at Oden. Could it have convinced Oden to joint them? The question will remain up in the air.

Spurs can now fill their 15th roster spot if they want it. At that stage of the summer, there isn't a single player available that could make a difference so Spurs can do whatever they want with that spot. A trade would be the way to really improve the team but trades usually don't happen in August/September.
i would have been more outraged about an offer of 3.4 mil to a set of knees waiting to become arthritic. juxtaposed, belinelli is the far safer and wiser move.

[Bruno]

i would have been more outraged about an offer of 3.4 mil to a set of knees waiting to become arthritic. juxtaposed, belinelli is the far safer and wiser move.

Well, if you didn't want Oden at that price, you could see it otherwise: Spurs picking Belinelli instead of Neal cost them the ability to offer $3.4M at the FA of your choice.

[rjv]

Well, if you didn't want Oden at that price, you could see it otherwise: Spurs picking Belinelli instead of Neal cost them the ability to offer $3.4M at the FA of your choice.

i would have been more outraged by a 3.4 mil contract for oden than i am by manu's contract. 3.4 mil is a market price that would have suggested a fairly respectable future performance. both of the former are examples of risk being taken for the future performance of a commodity that has too many variables of risk surrounding it. but manu's contract was also based on past performance and even though the risk about his injuries will always be there, manu does not have the anatomical propensity (i.e., oden's misaligned hips) to injury that is not worth investing anything more than 1 mil into.

[Oh, Gee!!]

oden would have taken a permanent spot on the bench for us, at best. at miami, i bet he actually gets to play some minutes. good move for oden. i hope he actually has a decent season.

[Bruno]

i would have been more outraged by a 3.4 mil contract for oden than i am by manu's contract.

I get that you didn't want Oden at that price. What I'm saying is, that if Spurs went with Neal instead of Belinelli, they could have offered another free agent (NOT Oden), a salary of $3.4M.

[therealtruth]

If it was really down to Spurs and Heat, why WOULDN'T you choose the Heat as a center when your competition there is much weaker (Haslem & Birdman, neither of whom are really centers) and you may actually get a chance to play? Here you're going to be behind an established three man big rotation, with a developmental guy (Baynes) and a floor spacing shooter (Bonner) in the mix too for minutes. He has skills (though probably rusty as all hell) and needs to showcase he can play decent minutes to warrant that next contract. Duncan would be a better teacher here, but he doesn't want to be the fourth or fifth big on the team.

It will actually be hard to beat Birdman's impact for the Heat. He was shooting a ridiculous 70%+ in the playoffs, plus he rebounds and blocks shots. I knew when the Heat picked him up it was an underrated acquisition. I think the Spurs should have gone after him if even to prevent him from playing on the Heat. If the Heat were forced to use Haslem more they would have lost the series.

[rjv]

I get that you didn't want Oden at that price. What I'm saying is, that if Spurs went with Neal instead of Belinelli, they could have offered another free agent (NOT Oden), a salary of $3.4M.


yes, another free agent would have been a nicer target than oden. but that begs the question: should the spurs have kept neal instead of signing marco.

[dbreiden83080]

He's played 9 seconds in the league and he is thinking about chasing a ring.. :lol

[Sean Cagney]

I'm really disappointed about his decision, 'cause he could have been a big hope for the years after the Duncan era.
That said, I also think that this choice was the worst for him, career oriented.
In S.A he would have been treated like a precious investment for the future, would have been taken care off for every thing and could have become better learning the offensive game from the best possible guy (and God knows if Oden needs to train his offensive game...expecially after three non playing years).
In Miami he instantly become the best option at center from day 1...so, despite all the insurances he received from whoever, he's at a big risk not to be taken care enough.
Imho, Spurs (with a crowded center position consisting in Tim, Splitter, Baynes and Pendergraph all able to play the role) in their current situation, could have given Oden a one year completely dedicated to his on court reabilitation and game improvement (wonderful training environment for a big).
Miami has the highest expectations possible of all the teams involved in his sweeptakes...and ther's no worst situation than this for an injured player just coming back to action 'cause, at the end, if your team needs you, you're supposed to play, despite your risky phisical conditions.
And I don't think that Greg is going to learn something from training neither with Anderson, Anthony or Haslem (all of them rely on defensive and athletic skills) nor from Bosh (totally diferent kind of player).
Imho dumb decision and horrible advise and counseling from his part.
For the Spurs, in any case, a big disappointment, but maybe a blessing in desguise.
First 'cause push our trainers to focus and give time to the improvement of promising players we already have at that position.
Second, 'cause this kind of decision seems to speak from itself about the player willingness to follow the obviously better path...for achiving results, you have to sacrifice your immediate expectations and work on yourself in the rifgt way. That's our culture. Oden, despite been, probably, a wonderful and kind guy, is still following the syrens....

Oden now at best is a role player and not a future for any team, infact he might not even last long in this league with those knees. Did I want him to come here cheap to play a role? YES, but he is no more than a project at this point.
Great signing by Miami, Oden could be the difference for them between threepeat and not threepeat.
I would say that hinders alot more on Wades Knee than anything.

[xmas1997]

Oden now at best is a role player and not a future for any team, infact he might not even last long in this league with those knees. Did I want him to come here cheap to play a role? YES, but he is no more than a project at this point.

But he could also be the difference in a three peat.

[KaiRMD1]

It would be quite insane if he rings before the ol' sport in Oklahoma City who was drafted after him

[superbigtime]

The guy looks as dumb as a goat. He's going to fall apart. Probably will get injured in scrimmaging or at a strip club parking lot. I can understand why he went to Miami.

[Skull-1]

Have a great 2 game season goofball.

Rotflmao!

[spurs10]

Oden called a press conference to announce he'd be taking his crutches to South Beach. :toast


Ah hell yeah Miami, its on!!! Where's my locker?!?
http://blazers.topbuzz.com/trailblazer-pics/d/3020-2/Greg+Oden+in+crutches.jpg His surgeon will be taking his talents to South Beach! :toast

[Kidd K]

Well, we all knew he was going to the Heat. No surprise there at all. The marquee teams always get the best and biggest names unless you overpay.



That's a lot of words to convey a simple fact: Dude is far too injury-prone to mess with.

That's not what the article was about. It was about how all of Oden's injuries were preventable, and that the Blazers were too conservative in their medical plans with Oden which led to more of the same problems. Essentially they just hoped and prayed it'd work itself out rather than take a progressive approach and it predictably failed.

[TD 21]

Now this brings up an interesting topic. How much does the FO's recruitment of players or lack thereof have to do with players passing up the Spurs as a destination all the time?

Do players pass up the Spurs as a destination because the FO doesn't put much effort into recruitment or are the Spurs really that much of a boring organization/city? Could it be a combination of both? Too bad we'll never have the answers to these questions.

Beyond the obvious (small market, haven't been considered serious contenders going into a season since '07-08, generally have had little financial flexibility), I think there's three more reasons they repeatedly get spurned . . .

1) As I said a few days ago, I don't get the sense that they, as Rivers calls it, beg.

2) Save for Leonard, the entire team is either mixed, foreign or white American and chances are, a lot of players probably don't think they're all that likely to relate to a lot of them.

3) This is as nuanced a system and strict an environment, in general, as there is in the league.

[michaelwcho]

Well, if you didn't want Oden at that price, you could see it otherwise: Spurs picking Belinelli instead of Neal cost them the ability to offer $3.4M at the FA of your choice.

Belinelli over Neal is a head-scratcher to me. It's the same player, except he doesn't know the system and we don't know if he'll comply with team directives.

[UZER]

Not sure why it took him this long. I would have picked Miami on Day 1. They're the champions, they have an enormous hole at the five, they have all the best steroid clinics, and Miami has hotter bitches than just about any city in the US.

Funny because when the spurs were winning chips, players said they didn't want to come to a team that already won. They wanted to help a team win. Now he picks a team that just won. Bottom line...players don't come to SA. Not that Oden was a game changer, but just another example of guys throwing the spurs name out there with no intentions of ever coming here.

[Bruno]

Belinelli over Neal is a head-scratcher to me. It's the same player, except he doesn't know the system and we don't know if he'll comply with team directives.

Belinelli is a little less a defensive liability than Neal. It could be the reason why they go with him.
In his 3 years with Spurs, when Neal was on the court Spurs allowed 5.5 more points per 100 possession in the regular season and 11.4 more in the playoffs. Stats back up the fact that Neal bad defense was hurting the whole team defense.

[Ice009]

Funny because when the spurs were winning chips, players said they didn't want to come to a team that already won. They wanted to help a team win. Now he picks a team that just won. Bottom line...players don't come to SA. Not that Oden was a game changer, but just another example of guys throwing the spurs name out there with no intentions of ever coming here.

Yep. Karl Malone said he didn't come here because he didn't want to go to the team that won the Championship but Oden hops right the fuck on the team that won it (they didn't win shit, we handed it to them. lol, yeah, I'm still mad and not giving them any respect). I bet if we won it, then he would have chosen Miami saying that he didn't want to go to the team that won it. Fuck both of them.

The guy is a imbecile. How can you turn down learning from Tim Duncan after he just showed the world how you can still compete with the best at age 37? He showed everyone that you don't need supreme athleticism to complete against the best, and that you can do it with a solid fundamental base. Roy Hibbert, a player tutored by Tim Duncan also played great against the Heat and almost helped Indiana beat them, yet this idiot still picks Miami. I would have had respect for him if he chose a team with decent big men that he could learn from and possibly grow with. Memphis would have been a good place for him to go to too, yet they weren't even on his list.

Oden is on my shitlist. It just made complete sense, yet the tool looks like he chose pussy over learning the game of basketball and bettering himself as a player. The dumb shit should have gotten into porn when the companies contacted him after those photos if that is his main priority. It sure isn't about making himself better as a player.

I think I read somewhere that said Miami told him they wouldn't need him much at the start of the season, well, that is a piss poor excuse, any team that signed him for the minimum would be able to ease him in slowly, no one would have rushed him, any team could have afforded him that.

Plain and simple, Oden copped out, just like Lebron.

[Ice009]

Belinelli over Neal is a head-scratcher to me. It's the same player, except he doesn't know the system and we don't know if he'll comply with team directives.

Not to me. I've wanted the return of real Spurs defense since after the 2009 season and Neal is just too poor of a defender.

I loved his attitude and willingness to take big shots with confidence (that is something else I always look for in a player), but not at the expense of decent defense. Even though fearlessness to take big shots and shoot with confidence is high up on my list, defense is always first. I'm hoping Marco can be someone similar to Neal on offense, but be able to keep working and improve on defense. That is the main thing I will be looking for from Marco, hopefully he can focus on continually improving himself as a defender.

Bruno, even though Marco isn't a great defender, do you think that he has more room for improvement on that end of the court in comparison to Gary Neal? I think Neal was pretty much maxed out on defense and wasn't going to get any better on that end of the court. I would have kept Gary if there were any signs that he could keep improving on defense, but I don't think that he could.

[therealtruth]

Belinelli is a little less a defensive liability than Neal. It could be the reason why they go with him.
In his 3 years with Spurs, when Neal was on the court Spurs allowed 5.5 more points per 100 possession in the regular season and 11.4 more in the playoffs. Stats back up the fact that Neal bad defense was hurting the whole team defense.

Neal never understood defensive help principles and was always standing in no man's land. He wasn't really helping and he was giving his man an open shot.

[therealtruth]

Not to me. I've wanted the return of real Spurs defense since after the 2009 season and Neal is just too poor of a defender.

I loved his attitude and willingness to take big shots with confidence (that is something else I always look for in a player), but not at the expense of decent defense. Even though fearlessness to take big shots and shoot with confidence is high up on my list, defense is always first. I'm hoping Marco can be someone similar to Neal on offense, but be able to keep working and improve on defense. That is the main thing I will be looking for from Marco, hopefully he can focus on continually improving himself as a defender.

Bruno, even though Marco isn't a great defender, do you think that he has more room for improvement on that end of the court in comparison to Gary Neal? I think Neal was pretty much maxed out on defense and wasn't going to get any better on that end of the court. I would have kept Gary if there were any signs that he could keep improving on defense, but I don't think that he could.

I agree we're finally seeing the return of Spurs defense. Pretty much the only time we struggled in the playoffs was when we went away from it like at the start of the Warriors series and end of the Heat series.

Neal was a quick fix when Pop thought we needed more offense but it would have been better to find a way to survive on offense and maintain our defense.

[Sean Cagney]

Yep. Karl Malone said he didn't come here because he didn't want to go to the team that won the Championship but Oden hops right the fuck on the team that won it (they didn't win shit, we handed it to them. lol, yeah, I'm still mad and not giving them any respect). I bet if we won it, then he would have chosen Miami saying that he didn't want to go to the team that won it. Fuck both of them.

The guy is a imbecile. How can you turn down learning from Tim Duncan after he just showed the world how you can still compete with the best at age 37? He showed everyone that you don't need supreme athleticism to complete against the best, and that you can do it with a solid fundamental base. Roy Hibbert, a player tutored by Tim Duncan also played great against the Heat and almost helped Indiana beat them, yet this idiot still picks Miami. I would have had respect for him if he chose a team with decent big men that he could learn from and possibly grow with. Memphis would have been a good place for him to go to too, yet they weren't even on his list.

Oden is on my shitlist. It just made complete sense, yet the tool looks like he chose pussy over learning the game of basketball and bettering himself as a player. The dumb shit should have gotten into porn when the companies contacted him after those photos if that is his main priority. It sure isn't about making himself better as a player.

I think I read somewhere that said Miami told him they wouldn't need him much at the start of the season, well, that is a piss poor excuse, any team that signed him for the minimum would be able to ease him in slowly, no one would have rushed him, any team could have afforded him that.

Plain and simple, Oden copped out, just like Lebron.
Do not worry he won't do shit and he will be out soon just like Roy was, except Roy was a player and had class :( Oden will be a role player at best, those injuries will get the best of him and he won't last long .

[Snaq O'Meal]

Yep. Karl Malone said he didn't come here because he didn't want to go to the team that won the Championship but Oden hops right the fuck on the team that won it (they didn't win shit, we handed it to them. lol, yeah, I'm still mad and not giving them any respect). I bet if we won it, then he would have chosen Miami saying that he didn't want to go to the team that won it. Fuck both of them.

The guy is a imbecile. How can you turn down learning from Tim Duncan after he just showed the world how you can still compete with the best at age 37? He showed everyone that you don't need supreme athleticism to complete against the best, and that you can do it with a solid fundamental base. Roy Hibbert, a player tutored by Tim Duncan also played great against the Heat and almost helped Indiana beat them, yet this idiot still picks Miami. I would have had respect for him if he chose a team with decent big men that he could learn from and possibly grow with. Memphis would have been a good place for him to go to too, yet they weren't even on his list.

Oden is on my shitlist. It just made complete sense, yet the tool looks like he chose pussy over learning the game of basketball and bettering himself as a player. The dumb shit should have gotten into porn when the companies contacted him after those photos if that is his main priority. It sure isn't about making himself better as a player.

I think I read somewhere that said Miami told him they wouldn't need him much at the start of the season, well, that is a piss poor excuse, any team that signed him for the minimum would be able to ease him in slowly, no one would have rushed him, any team could have afforded him that.

Plain and simple, Oden copped out, just like Lebron.

If I can recall correctly, Miami first reached out to Oden shortly after his release from Portland, when he was at the lowest point of his career. At that time, pretty much everyone else have written him off, but Miami nevertheless maintained contact with him and perhaps made him feel like part of the organisation.

So, it came as no surprise that Oden eventually picked Miami. From all accounts, Oden appeared to be a very respectful and loyal person, so picking another team will be out of character for him. Instead of heaping scorn on the guy, perhaps other teams should learn a thing or two from Miami's recruitment approach.

[Seefourdc]

Some dumb people on here. Also some heartless sick people. Oden is a person who has gone through a lot of shit with his knees to try to play basketball again. More than a respectable effort.

The reason the Heat landed him is two things. #1 they reached out like posted above. #2 and more importantly to Greg Oden at this time Spo and Riley know about the Zig stuff posted in that article up there and everything Oden is working on to fix all of the underlying circumstances that led up to his injury. They were the only team who really treated him like a human being and were interested in what was best for his recovery. Pat Riley is masterful in reaching out to athletes and treating them as individual human beings instead of JUST making it about business. Riley is talking to people first and basketball business second. That's why the Heat will be a juggernaut again next year.

Sad that both teams and fans treat players like they are JUST lucky to be there but forget that it's just a damn game and people actually have life changing injuries because of it. Maybe it's because I work in the medical field and see how hard it is to go through rehab for orthopedic injuries I get it, but it's sad to me seeing such ugly ass opinions about a human being who's had 5 surgeries and a ton of painful rehab over a 3 year period be talked about as sub-human refuse because he is playing a stupid game for another team instead of your team.

Stay classy dudes.

[resistanze]

:lol @ GNSF's bitterness. From "He'd be a great fit!" to "Fuck that cripple!" because he didn't choose SA. Was Oden disrespectful in any way?

[rjv]

Some dumb people on here. Also some heartless sick people. Oden is a person who has gone through a lot of shit with his knees to try to play basketball again. More than a respectable effort.

The reason the Heat landed him is two things. #1 they reached out like posted above. #2 and more importantly to Greg Oden at this time Spo and Riley know about the Zig stuff posted in that article up there and everything Oden is working on to fix all of the underlying circumstances that led up to his injury. They were the only team who really treated him like a human being and were interested in what was best for his recovery. Pat Riley is masterful in reaching out to athletes and treating them as individual human beings instead of JUST making it about business. Riley is talking to people first and basketball business second. That's why the Heat will be a juggernaut again next year.

Sad that both teams and fans treat players like they are JUST lucky to be there but forget that it's just a damn game and people actually have life changing injuries because of it. Maybe it's because I work in the medical field and see how hard it is to go through rehab for orthopedic injuries I get it, but it's sad to me seeing such ugly ass opinions about a human being who's had 5 surgeries and a ton of painful rehab over a 3 year period be talked about as sub-human refuse because he is playing a stupid game for another team instead of your team.

Stay classy dudes.
this is a tangent but goes to your point: riley was the only university of kentucky player to shake any of the texas western players' hands when UK lost in the NCAA final to the first team to ever have an all black starting five.

he'll always have my respect for that. riles probably has a lot of similar traits to pop.

[CaptainLate]

Belinelli is a little less a defensive liability than Neal. It could be the reason why they go with him.
In his 3 years with Spurs, when Neal was on the court Spurs allowed 5.5 more points per 100 possession in the regular season and 11.4 more in the playoffs. Stats back up the fact that Neal bad defense was hurting the whole team defense.

I knew Neal would make the team after that crazy summer league performance. But NEVER did I like Neal as a backup PG. If pressured, he was a TO waiting to happen (think Beno Udrih vs. Detroit). As long as MB is not a worse defender, and he is not, he is a better ball handler, will drive to the basket and get more trips to the FT line. I'm confident his BBIQ will help him pick up "the Spurs way" so by playoff time, he'll be a much better fit than Neal ever was.

[Biggems]

i didnt really want Oden anyway....so I am not upset. I would rather have Asik, too bad that has about close to zero chance of happening. I know we really only have room for 1 more Big on the roster, I would like to go after Zeke Marshall. Bring him to camp, give him some preseason minutes, and if he shows some potential, sign him and send him to Austin for a while.

So while the Oden signing didnt bother me, i am still quite upset about Miami getting one of my pet cats, James Ennis, from the draft. He could have been the solution to our backup SF.

[dbreiden83080]

:lol @ GNSF's bitterness. From "He'd be a great fit!" to "Fuck that cripple!" because he didn't choose SA. Was Oden disrespectful in any way?

It was just about getting the name more than the player? Thinking the Spurs could sign Oden sounded kind of cool to some fans. He won't be contributing in any meaningful way with the Heat and he would not have with the Spurs. If he is lucky he will play 10 min or so a night since he'll be treated with kid gloves out of fear that he will be on the operating table again.

[Skull-1]

Beyond the obvious (small market, haven't been considered serious contenders going into a season since '07-08, generally have had little financial flexibility), I think there's three more reasons they repeatedly get spurned . . .

1) As I said a few days ago, I don't get the sense that they, as Rivers calls it, beg.

2) Save for Leonard, the entire team is either mixed, foreign or white American and chances are, a lot of players probably don't think they're all that likely to relate to a lot of them.

3) This is as nuanced a system and strict an environment, in general, as there is in the league.

Point 2 shows the Balkanization of America. People hate the nation and the culture that made them great.

In a foxhole fighting an enemy the color of the guy saving your behind becomes highly irrelevant. I don't care what color Dash Two is. I am glad he is covering my tail. I also don't care what color Dash Four is. As his Lead I will die to save him. This color and race and ethnic stuff is so juvenile.... Retarded. Immature.

As for 3.... Thank gawd the Aviators from the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Army (not to mention the airline pilots who slave away at the regionals for 17 grand a year) accept...and thrive in...a nuanced and strict environment.

[SsKSpurs21]

No Real centers in the East for him to get pushed around by. West centers would destroy him. especially spurs playing rockets 4 times out of the year and memphis.

[hsxvvd]

Maybe a better place to hide the PEDs.

[siraulo23]

Do not worry he won't do shit and he will be out soon just like Roy was, except Roy was a player and had class :( Oden will be a role player at best, those injuries will get the best of him and he won't last long .

I bet you wouldnt be saying that had he signed with the spurs

Bottomline, he wanted sign with miami. I dont think anything would have change that, unless some team offered him significantly more money than miami

[TD 21]

Point 2 shows the Balkanization of America. People hate the nation and the culture that made them great.

In a foxhole fighting an enemy the color of the guy saving your behind becomes highly irrelevant. I don't care what color Dash Two is. I am glad he is covering my tail. I also don't care what color Dash Four is. As his Lead I will die to save him. This color and race and ethnic stuff is so juvenile.... Retarded. Immature.

As for 3.... Thank gawd the Aviators from the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Army (not to mention the airline pilots who slave away at the regionals for 17 grand a year) accept...and thrive in...a nuanced and strict environment.

You read too much into it. It's not that they're racist, it's just human nature . . . and it's the same reason foreign players want to play for the Spurs.

[RD2191]

Maybe a better place to hide the PEDs.
I was thinking the same thing, tbh.

[xmas1997]

Neither AK nor GO we're ever coming here.

[Ice009]

I bet you wouldnt be saying that had he signed with the spurs

Bottomline, he wanted sign with miami. I dont think anything would have change that, unless some team offered him significantly more money than miami

Explain to me what he will get out of going to Miami (apart from bandwagon riding)? If Lebron wasn't there I doubt he would have signed there at all. Same with clowns like Deshaun Stevenson now saying that they want to go to Miami too. Deshaun wore that shirt after the Dallas finals series "Lebron how does my Dirk taste" (or something similar to that) and now the clown wants to play for them. That is beyond pathetic. They all want on the bandwagon. I won't say what Sean said, but I don't like Oden at all anymore. I don't think he made a smart choice at all.

I would have had no problem with him signing with another team other than the Spurs if it made sense. He said that he didn't want pressure, but Miami is weak in the middle and they may need someone to step up in the playoffs against Indiana, Brooklyn or Chicago. He could end up being a scapegoat if they lose to one of those teams because of big man depth. Also, Miami's big men are so poor at playing in the post, what is he going to learn there from any of them?

Stupid decision overall IMO. He went for the flashy pick. I really wonder if he would have signed there if Lebron wasn't there.

[HI-FI]

those Deshaun tweets are beyond pathetic. I'm hoping the Heat this year are like 2004 Lakers, the flashy pick with lots of talent but ultimately imploded in the Finals. It will be interesting to see if they can make it to a fourth Finals in a row with a stronger East, not to mention if Biogenesis isn't around to supply them in a fix.

[Sean Cagney]

I bet you wouldnt be saying that had he signed with the spurs

Bottomline, he wanted sign with miami. I dont think anything would have change that, unless some team offered him significantly more money than miami
I didn't really care whether he signed here or not, I wanted them to get a SF or a PG backup most of all. If he signed I would not expect too much out of a guy who did not play in however many years. I agree he wanted to sign in Miami all along, hell alot do to piggyback to a possible title and live in South Beach. I agree on the second part too.
those Deshaun tweets are beyond pathetic. I'm hoping the Heat this year are like 2004 Lakers, the flashy pick with lots of talent but ultimately imploded in the Finals. It will be interesting to see if they can make it to a fourth Finals in a row with a stronger East, not to mention if Biogenesis isn't around to supply them in a fix.

Stevenson used to yell at Lebron and try to talk trash to him all the time, yes his tweets are beyond pathetic to say the least and I lost alot of respect for that guy who used to talk trash to Lebron on the Wizards and then with the Mavs.

[Skull-1]

You read too much into it. It's not that they're racist, it's just human nature . . . and it's the same reason foreign players want to play for the Spurs. I still think it is dumb. Play for a winner. Be the best you can be. That's my default setting. I don't understand why anyone would think otherwise.

[NickiRasgo]

Congrats with your First Finals Appearance! :toast

[NickiRasgo]

You wanted Heat over us? Thanks! :toast