Former NBA guard Brandon Roy recently recalled his days with the Portland Trail Blazers, noting that when Greg Oden joined the team in 2007, he believed the Trail Blazers could win an NBA title.
“I remember calling my dad, and he was like, ‘How good is he?'” Roy said. “We can win a championship. For the first time in my life, playing with him, I was like, ‘We could win a championship.’ He was that good.”
However, knee injuries soon relegated Oden to a shortened career that consisted of only 105 games. He sat out the first season after being drafted, and he then played a total of only 82 games over the following two seasons.
Oden then missed three straight seasons before making a short-lived 23-game comeback with the Miami Heat during the 2013-14 season.
Roy was acquired by the Trail Blazers in a draft-night deal in the 2006 NBA Draft, but knee trouble also led to a shortened career.
What might have been is a lament that many players and teams have pondered over the years. Roy’s comments certainly seem to fall into that category.
