Very few people saw the news of Greg Oden’s exploratory arthroscopic knee surgery coming. Practically nothing had been written about Oden’s knees prior to yesterday – he was perfectly healthy in his pre-draft workouts – and the news came as a bit of a shock.
One of the few individuals on the planet who knew this was coming is Mike Barrett, a play-by-play announcer for the Blazers. From his blog:
Last Thursday, after the team’s morning running session, Oden complained of some pain in his right knee. I saw him sitting out of the team’s pick-up games, and learned a while later that there was some swelling as well. Taking the same precautions they would with any player, management decided the best way to check this out would be to have an MRI on the knee.
That’s basically it. There just isn’t anything more to report at this time. There also isn’t any reason to think this is more serious at this time. I can also tell you that it isn’t believed that any of this was a pre-existing problem.
Is this the case of a Portland-based guy trying to calm the nerves of Blazer fans everywhere, or is the cut-up really nothing to fret over? We’ll find out soon enough, but anytime knee surgery and first overall draft pick are in the same sentence, it’s never cause for celebration.
