More bad news for Greg Oden

Shit, I saw it months ago. It's impressive, but not impressive enough to cancel his face and the fact he went to Ohio State.

 

That's right.

 

Averaging 10 points during perhaps the highest-scoring era in NBA history stretches the definition of solid.

 

I think what people forget about him is that Bowie was ahead of his time with his maneuverability as a 7-1 guy. Before he proved to have the legs of a 2-year-old colt, he played a forward's type of game.

 

To me a bust is someone like Lancaster Gordon who washes out in four years or someone like Chris Washburn, who got ruined by drugs.

 

Word.

 

I suppose it all depends on your definition of a bust.

Sam Bowie was drafted ahead of a few hall of fame-level players. If you go to basketballreference.com, the player most similar to Sam Bowie is Chris Kaman.

I will say this -- Portland's decision to draft Bowie 2nd overall was disastrously stupid, despite all the revisionist history suggesting it made sense at the time. Michael Jordan was available, guys who worked out with and scouted Jordan for the Blazers begged them to draft him, and they went with the guy who missed two full seasons of college ball with injuries.

The Oden situation was just terrible luck for the Blazers. It was a defensible pick. The Bowie pick was indefensible.

 

To be fair to Portland though, they did use their No. 1 pick on a shooting guard the year before to take Clyde Drexler. And Jim Paxson was coming off two seasons where he was averaging 21 points a game. Plus, they were envisioning having a twin towers with Bowie and Mychal Thompson.

 

Clyde Drexler started three games and averaged eight points as a rookie, and the Blazers didn't even have him projected as a starter the following year (he started a little more than half the games). He was the 14th pick of the '83 draft. He was not some can't-miss kid they were planning their entire future around.

Bowie had major leg injuries in college, which is the biggest red flag possible regarding a big man.

It's hilarious that 30 years later, large chunks of the fan base just can't come to grips.

 

As Bob Knight famously said when Portland's GM said we can't draft Jordan, we need a center...

"Play Jordan at center."

 

I'm with you on this one. A bust is someone is awful as a player, not someone who was robbed of a career because of injuries.