The top pick in the June NBA draft, Greg Oden, will be out for the season. Oden had micro-fracture surgery on his knee, and will be on crutches for the next 8 weeks.

“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 said. “I could feel the weight of the world on his shoulders. And as a leader and as leaders of this organization, my first thought was how lucky we were to have a guy that cares about the organization that much.”

Although Kevin Pritchard would swear that Oden hasn’t let down the organization, this loss really hurts. The starting job at center will have to go to Joel Pryzbilla, who in his defense can hold his own at that position, but is no Greg Oden. The Trail Blazers are a team that went 32-50 last year, they need to rely on rookies to rebuild the franchise. Hopefully Oden can come back in 2008 and play up to his ability, but doing so after coming back from such an injury would be difficult to say the least. Hopefully Oden won’t become a “Sam Bowie” of sorts. The Trail Blazers may live to regret passing on Kevin Durant.