Forget about the 2007-2008 season if your a Portland Trailblazer fan. A week ago you were worried and possibly annoyed because Greg Oden was headed for non-serious 'arthroscopic' knee surgery. Well today its far far worse. When the words Microfracture Surgery get whispered around your franchise player there is cause for panic. In all honesty the 2007-2008 season would have been filled with excitement for the Blazers fans but ended in nothing spectacular and probably without a bid to the postseason. So in reality you're not missing much, it's not as if a championship was going to come this season. But it's the future that is more terrifying, the daunting possibility that your #1 pick could lose all of his athleticism and be more Sam Bowie than David Robinson. The thought that the player you pinned your hopes on to turn your franchise into a dynasty may be dead and buried before a single game has been played.
This pain and agony comes from knowing the results of this surgery in the past. Many players have received the surgery and most come back a shell of their former athleticism. Microfracture surgery effectively turned Chris Webber from an athletic dunking machine to a high post, jump shooting, hook shot artist. For a few years Webber was able to remain productive but look at him now, he can barely get up and down the court. The hope for Blazers fans is that the surgery has grown in expertise since its inception and that the success that Amare Stoudamire has seen will be seen in Greg.
I would say that I feel for you Blazer fans, but I don't after you fleeced Brandon Roy away from us last season for Sebastian Telfair. I know it's not your fault that your GM is intelligent while the Celtics GM is a complete moron, but I'm still bitter about it, so you will get no sympathy here.
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