Complete Fulfillment

Living here in Portland there are a ton of expectations on Greg Oden. People jump on the band wagon really quick and they jump off really quick only to jump on the dog pile. It is really annoying. People just need to give him time to get into the NBA. Tonight was really his second game. He is a number one pick who was the pick of the decade to most people. Then he was hurt for all of last year then in the first 2 minutes of his first game he gets hurt again. He came back to play for the first time in Miami a few days ago and played tonight in New Orleans. He is now coming off the bench which is great in my opinion. In the Miami game he looked OK but still not in sync.

Tonight he looked great. He was a major defensive presence - patrolling the paint. He looked good running the floor - which he had not to this point. He was aggressive on the offensive end even though he did not get his number called much. He had a monster dunk off an inbounds play that was good to see. The main thing in my mind is that he seemed to feel comfortable for the first time ever on the court in the NBA. He was into the game and there was no center on New Orleans that could keep up with him. Here is what we have to look forward to in the future - a sky high block - this was awesome.

I can't wait for this guy to join the Blazers next season. He is going to need some work but he is high energy. In the gold medal game last night he made some threes, some great passes, rebounded and this great dunk. He fouled out and Spain lost but you can tell that this guy will be an exciting add to an already great Blazers squad.

The Russian reaction is the best part.

I opened the paper this morning to see that Brandon Roy was to have knee surgery this morning. It was a flash back to Oden last year. The good new is that he is going to be fine. He sure gets beat up but this is good news for the Blazers at this point. Here is some video of Pritchard talking about the procedure.

Kevin Pritchard on Brandon Roy's knee surgery

After the original Dream Team there the US went through a period of over confidence and eventually was not as dominant as they should have been, failing to win in the Greece Olympics. After the last embarrassment, it was great to see all of the great players who are now on the team. In watching the game today against China it was really amazing to realize the collection of players that was out there.

After the game there was an interview (click above for the video) with Lebron James who has seemed to become the vocal leader of the team. He was asked how this compared to the NBA finals or the NBA All-Star game. He said it was by far the biggest thing he had ever played in. Now it was estimated that 500 million Chinese watched the game and I would assume millions more around the world. It was said to be the most widely watched basketball game in the history of the sport.

It hit me as to the motivation of Lebron and possibly some of the other athletes. Lebron wants to be a global icon. He has made this claim in the past and it can be seen in his actions. Basketball is very much a global game and one of the largest passions of the Chinese people. Lebron would not have missed the chance to increase his global icon status on the largest stage on the planet.

Kobe has been said to be the best basketball player in the game and it shows the way he plays on this stage. Kobe wants to be famous but more than that he want to win and be one of the best players ever. If Lebron could ever get that killer instinct like Kobe or MJ there is no telling what he could do. Lebron becomes a free agent next summer and if he wanted to win he would consider Portland. With the players they have up and coming adding Lebron would be SCARY. But unfortunately Portland is not a big enough stage and the west coast is hard because of TV coverage. He will end up at the NY Knicks or the Brooklyn Nets. My bet is the Nets but we will see.

I'm back - not that any of you missed me but anyways...

I am in the process in finishing up my MBA and I have switched jobs. I have never been consistent about writing in this because of not enough time to commit. Hopefully I have some time to write and enjoy this and another blog that I write. I was looking back at these posts and it has been a while. I bought an iPhone in December and the new one is slated to come out next month. Needless to say a lot has happened since I last was active on this. More to come soon - Blazers & the NBA draft and the iPhone.

The Vegas Summer Leage has started and the Blazers are playing the Boston Celtics. I was excited because the games were suppose to be broadcast on NBA.com. BUT...the Blazers game is blacked out. It will be on NBA TV tomorrow but still a fairly bad move by the NBA. Oden did not get of to a hot start but will be fine in the next game. That guy has so much pressure and attention I can't even imagine. This year will be great. It should be interesting to see the rest of the moves the Blazers make before the season. Darius Miles please retire.