Lost In The Excitement Of Greg Oden, Reality Hasn't Sunk In For Blazers Fans

Blazers fans love Greg Oden. There's been many articles about him since he started college at Ohio State and even more since he left Ohio State after one year. So much so, he became the number-one pick in the draft. The problem for Blazers fans was that Oden managed to get injured and miss the whole season. During that time he became a staple in Portland for his community involvement.

Now that he's back and healthy, more articles are being written about Oden. Including one on Bleacher Report comparing him to some hall of fame players or soon to be hall of famers. The problem is, reality hasn't really sunk in for Blazers fans. Oden will have a decent year there's no doubt about that, but the comparisons to the hall of famers is way too early, considering he hasn't played one minute in the NBA.

Welcome back to earth though Blazers fans. See, for Oden it's going to be a long road before he'll be able to dominate a center in the NBA. Why, must you ask, will he struggle? Let's take a look at the Blazers first few games on the schedule.

Their first game is against the Los Angeles Lakers and Oden will get the task of guarding Andrew Bynum, the next game for the Blazers is against San Antonio where he'll have to probably match up against Tim Duncan, the very next night Oden gets to face Shaq or Amare Stoudemire, then there's Carlos Boozer or Mehmet Okur. Next night Yao Ming. A few days later Kevin Love or Al Jefferson, and then to cap it off, Dwight Howard.

So, in Oden's first seven games of the season, he's going to have face some stiff competition and he's definitely going to show his ups and downs. Especially on the defensive end. The reality is that Oden is nowhere near the level of the hall of fame centers being discussed, such as Shaq, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, etc. Oden is going to have to prove that he belongs in the NBA and he's also going to have to dis-prove the tag of injury-proned.

Here's a simple thought in regards to Oden: let him play. Let's see what he can do before any comparisons are made. He has not played one game in the NBA and right now there is no reason for the comparisons. There's also no way to judge a preseason performance either because the players aren't going to be playing as hard or play as many minutes unless it's someone fighting for a spot on the roster. Stop with the comparisons until Oden actually does something. Until then let's just wait and see.