The Portland Trail Blazers have dug themselves a deep hole in the 2015-16 NBA Playoffs. Or rather, the Golden State Warriors have dug it for them.
Down 2-0 in the second-round series after squandering a 17-point lead in Game 2, the Blazers find themselves with a Vesuvius-sized mountain to climb. The Warriors, not only the defending champions but the best regular-season team in league history, haven’t let up without the defending (and presumed) MVP, Stephen Curry, and it’s looking as if the season’s end is just around to corner for Rip City.
So why choose now—a time when it’s tough to see a positive outcome on the horizon—in a forum like this to bring up Greg Oden and what could have been?
Perspective.
ESPN recently ranked the top 25 players in all of sports in terms of unfulfilled potential. And you guessed it: With a panel of 60 writers identifying who left us wanting more, Oden came out on top.
Per ESPN:
“Like Bowie before him, Oden was besieged by injuries in Portland. He underwent microfracture surgery on his right knee before he ever played an NBA game, and a string of subsequent injuries and surgeries led the Trail Blazers to waive him in 2012 after he’d appeared in just 82 games for them. Oden resurfaced in a limited role with the Heat in 2014, but he hasn’t played in the NBA since.”
While the Oden conversation will continue until the end of time, the Trail Blazers have moved on and found success. The team hasn’t won a championship, and by all accounts won’t this year. But the fact that Portland is in the second round of the postseason in a year it was projected by oddsmakers to tally 26.5 victories is beyond respectable.
More than anything else, it shows that a team is only down for so long considering it was last summer when we saw LaMarcus Aldridge and Co. leave for supposed greener pastures.
If you’re of the mindset that the Blazers shouldn’t have a “happy to be here” mindset, you’re not alone. Plenty of folks in the Pacific Northwest will take the cliche “playing with house money” and toss it out the window. This team has made it beyond where anyone expected, and there’s no point justifying losses at this juncture.
But the reality remains: This team has been through so much before, during and after the Oden era that being down 2-0 against Golden State is far from the end of the world, especially what this franchise saw with its botched 2007 No. 1 draft pick.
Portland has a mountain to climb, but the fact that it’s as close as it is to the summit makes this season special whether it’s the Blazers or Warriors who ultimately reach the top.
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