The sports world is filled with axioms.
You know, wisdom such as, “Drive for show, putt for dough.” Or, “Don’t make the third out at third base.” Or, “Don’t ask John Daly for fashion advice.”
But in the wake of the latest injury to Greg Oden, we have been inundated with a misnomer masquerading as an axiom: “Franchise centers win championships.”
This gets repeated often, particularly by those feebly rationalizing the Blazers’ drafting of Oden ahead of Kevin Durant. And it is absolutely true — if a time warp has taken us back to the 1960s.
Yes, once upon a time, players such as Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain and Willis Reed and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were the linchpins to multiple titles. But in the modern NBA, in an age of 3-point shots and dribble-drive offenses and 6-foot-9 greyhounds who can handle the ball, the importance of a franchise center has been diminished.
Don’t believe it? Then take a gander at the starting centers for some recent NBA champions. You have Andrew Bynum and Kendrick Perkins and Francisco Elson. You have Rasho Nesterovic and Ben Wallace. And if you want to include teams that simply reached the Finals, you have the immortal DeSagana Diop.
Yes, you have all manner of journeyman centers winning or competing for NBA titles, with only Shaquille O’Neal’s 2006 title with the Heat breaking the trend over the past seven years.
Certainly, a championship team needs a powerful inside presence. Elson and Nesterovic won titles alongside Tim Duncan. Bynum has Pau Gasol; Perkins has Kevin Garnett.
But the notion that you need a dominant center to win an NBA championship is as outdated as lava lamps and the Age of Aquarius.
None of which is an effort to point out the obvious — that the Blazers utterly botched the 2007 draft. (Don’t tell me that every general manager in the league would have taken Oden. I can name several journalists who said the Blazers should draft Durant, and we aren’t the smartest subset of the species. Surely, some NBA general managers could figure it out.) But it is an attempt to consider where the Blazers go from here.
Oden likely is done in Portland. Sure, some have postulated that the worst thing in the world would be to watch him develop into an All-Star with another team.
But that’s like me saying that I shouldn’t have gotten married because Eva Longoria is now available. Guess what: There’s no potential there.
Instead, the Blazers’ larger concern must be the future of Brandon Roy, whose 26-year-old knees apparently think they are 46. And with that, two of the three pillars propping open Portland’s alleged championship window have collapsed.
Given that reality, it’s time for the Blazers to enter another rebuilding phase — about 10 years earlier than expected.
Marcus Camby is 36; Andre Miller is 34. Neither will be around by the time Portland is ready to contend for a title. Roy’s knees will prevent him from being the anchor for a contender. Oden is a bust.
That leaves Nicolas Batum and LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews as the foundation for next couple years. That’s not a bad start, and I think Batum will develop into a multi-time All-Star.
But as the Blazers focus on filling the remaining holes, they would be wise to worry about picking up talented, durable players, rather than fixating on a franchise center.
