Top NBA Pick Oden Now Has to Focus on 2008-09

Portland Trail Blazers' 7-footer Greg Oden has his own blog on yardbarker.com, in which he's up front about his daily life an NBA rookie to be.

Consider this entry from two days ago:

``On my vacation earlier this summer i got up off the couch and remember my knee having a sharp pain in it. That was about a month ago. I didn't tell anyone because i didn't want to seem like i was complaining or making excuses for anything.''

Photo of Greg Oden by Ethan Hyman

The top pick in last June's NBA draft out of Ohio State went in for an exploratory procedure yesterday on his right knee and instead had microfracture surgery, meaning he will miss his entire rookie season.

"Greg looked at me as he was coming out of his surgery, and he and his mom Zoe probably said 'sorry' 20 times," Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard told ESPN.

Consider also that a huge jersey with the name "Oden" and a No. 1 hangs on the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, And across the street, a building is plastered with a huge billboard proclaiming "The Road Back to Rip City" with larger-than-life photos of Oden and teammates Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge.

Oden's season-ending surgery yesterday will assuredly bring some soul-searching blog entries to come, not to mention a entire revamp of the Trail Blazer marketing plan for the 2007-08 season.