Ever since the Portland Trail Blazers made Greg Oden the top pick of the NBA draft back in the summer of 2007, not much has seemed to go right for the oldest-looking 21-year old in the world. He missed his entire rookie season thanks to microfracture surgery on his right knee, which isn’t the best way to start off a career. Still, Blazers fans and Oden looked to this season as a new rookie year, and hoped he’d help turn things around.

Then Greg banged knees with Golden State’s Corey Maggette on February 12th, and even though team doctors knew that he’d chipped his left knee cap, the Blazers reported it as a day-to-day injury. That’s most definitely not the case, and in fact, it’s more likely Oden will miss the rest of the season. As you’d expect, he’s catching a lot of grief for it, and Oden wants you to know that he’s tired of it.

From OREGONLIVE.COM:

“It’s like, dang, can I ever do anything right?” Oden says.

“I get portrayed wrongly, like I don’t have a heart.  But I sit there and I try to explain to people what is going on, and it’s like they aren’t listening to me.”

There is pain, Oden says, and not just any pain, but biting pain. He said it so many times in interviews that he started saying it more demonstratively, in hopes that his louder tone would finally get someone to believe him.

“I don’t know how else to put it: There’s a difference between sore and painful, and this is painful,” Oden said.

“Look, I’m tired of sitting; I want to get out there, but damn, if I did go out there and play, it may be worse having me out there. They’d be playing four-on-five most of the time.”

As for how long Oden is going to be out, he doesn’t really know, which no doubt it contributing to his frustration. The team doctors are telling him to wait 7 to 10 days and see how it feels then. If his knee is still bothersome at that point, well, wait another 7 to 10 days and see how it feels.

I can understand Oden’s frustration, but at the same time, I can understand the fans’ frustration, as well. The guy was a number one pick, and though he was probably overhyped as the next Bill Russell, having a top pick play in only 46 games during his first two years is annoying. Especially when he’s only averaging 9 points a game when he is in there.