Losing Oden puts macro fracture in Blazers' plan

Greg Oden: Wait till next year

Blazermania, catch it and wait till next year.

The Portland Trail Blazers' hopes of returning to contention were rescheduled Thursday with the announcement that prized rookie Greg Oden has been lost for the season.

Oden, the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft and considered the best young center since Tim Duncan, underwent microfracture surgery on his right knee Thursday.

Blazers General Manager Kevin Pritchard, who exclaimed "Rip City again, here we come!" at the lottery in May, was obliged to make the devastating announcement at a news conference in Portland.

"Greg looked at me as he was coming out of his surgery," said Pritchard. "He and his mom, Zoe, probably said 'sorry' 20 times. And I can feel the weight of the world on his shoulders. . . .

"He felt like he let us down and he hasn't let us down at all. He came here early. He was working on getting in shape and that's a great thing."

Dr. Don Roberts, who performed the surgery, said, "There are things about this that are positive for Greg. First of all he is young. The area where the damage was is small and the rest of his knee looked normal."

Unfortunately for him and his team, everything else goes under the heading of worst-case scenario.

The injury is Oden's second in two years. He broke his right wrist last year and started the season at Ohio State wearing a cast, shooting free throws left-handed.

Microfracture surgery is supposed to stimulate the regrowth of cartilage but the recovery isn't speedy.

Experiences range from Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire, who needed a year to come back; Detroit's Chris Webber, who was never the same, and New York's Allan Houston, whose career was interrupted.

With Oden, the Trail Blazers were expected to make a run at the playoffs, even coming off a 32-50 season with little continuity or experience.

Four new starters were projected alongside the lone holdover, second-year guard Brandon Roy, in a lineup with a total of 11 years of experience, but no one could miss their promise.

The draft that sent Oden to Portland and Kevin Durant to Seattle was one of the things that tripped out Kobe Bryant.

On May 24, the Trail Blazers, with a 5.3% chance to get the top lottery pick, designated Roy to represent them and pulled out the plum.

Three days later, as Lakers teammates Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown underwent surgery, Bryant noted, "I'm still frustrated. I'm waiting for them to make some changes."