Will Greg Oden bring the Portland Trailblazers an NBA championship?
With another NBA draft comes another useless and ill-advised prognostication. I often wonder why the media feels the need to crown the next big player as the savior for the franchise that drafts him. In recent interviews after this week’s NBA Draft selection, both Jay Bilas and Bob Ryan were quoted as saying that Greg Oden would undoubtedly bring a title to Portland (assuming they draft him) within the next three to five years. While I’m sure Trailblazer fans are ecstatic about the thought of returning to their glory years of Bill Walton and Dr. Jack Ramsey, unfortunately for them, a number one draft pick rarely guarantees a world championship. A review of the top picks over the last twenty years supports this claim. Only once since 1985 has a player chosen number one been the key factor in bringing a championship to the team that drafted him: 1985: Patrick Ewing, Georgetown, Drafted by New York. While Patrick had a Hall of Fame career, he fell short of bringing the Knicks a title, tha
