You Can Talk to Me, You Can Talk to Me...

Andrew Bynum loves weird faces.

As for the other man....

Big man fall hard.  As many of you may or may not know, I am a very big Lakers fan.  In basketball, I live for the Lake show.  Last night was the season opener for the Western Conference Champs, and you can tell that they came out on a mission.  They do not want to fall short again.  I give all the credit in the world to the Celtics, but I think there is nothing stopping Kobe & Co this year.  

One of the highly followed things leading into this season was the emergence of Greg Oden.  He plays for the Portland Trailblazers who, without Oden last year, had a very surprising season.  This year they were hoping to take it to the next level with their number one overall pick from a year ago.  He didn't play last year because he had season ending knee surgery.  BUT, this year he came back and was bigger than ever.  It looked like he could put the Blazers into the mix as an elite team in the league for a long time.  This team is very young and can simply overmatch a lot of weaker teams with him in the lineup.

So, on to last night.  Late in the first quarter of last night's Lakers/Blazers game, something happened.  Oden, who has yet to score his first NBA point, went down.  He went down hard.  He landed on Derek Fisher's foot coming down from a rebound.  He twisted his foot and hit the floor.  He tried to keep playing, which shows how determined he really is.  Eventually he had to come out.  At half-time and after the game the Blazers thought it was a sprain in his foot.  No big deal stay off it for a day or two, be back Friday, at the latest.  

Today he went in for an MRI and it came back inconclusive at first.  But, the most recent news is that he has a foot strain, which is much more serious.  Well, apparently he's going to be sidelined for about six to eight weeks.  This guy cannot catch a break.  He just wants to play basketball, or even baseketball, but probably basketball more.  One setback after another, and Blazer fans are thinking they're cursed.  

They seem to have a big man curse.  The biggest name that seems to come to mind is Sam Bowie.  He is famous for being the number one pick in the 1984 NBA draft.  This wouldn't be a big deal if he wasn't picked in front of Michael Jordan.  Of course, who picked Sam?...the Blazers, of course.  Sam Bowie played his rookie season for the Blazers, in an average amount of games.  However over the next 4 seasons, he played a combined 63 games.  This includes his second season which he played in 5 games and his third season which he played in a whopping ZERO games.  

Blazer fans...Pray.

You better hope this doesn't happen again.

Bye.

-Nick