Dec 29th 2008 2:15PM by Brett Pollakoff (author feed)
Filed under: Trail Blazers, NBA Media WatchAt the beginning of a weekend column in , John Canzano tells the tale of Greg Oden occasionally isolating himself from teammates in the back of the plane, which is something he used to do to stretch out his injured leg on long flights. The problem? He’s healthy now, so it appears to be more of a reclusive move by last year’s top draft pick than it is anything else.

The point of the column is to point out that Joel Przybilla should be in the starting lineup and that Oden should be coming off the bench. But Oden’s intitially gregarious personality has seemingly disappeared, and the fact that he’s become more withdrawn seems to have the franchise afraid to pull the trigger on that decision. Canzano points out that at the moment, they’re treating Oden with kid gloves, to the detriment of the franchise.Continue Reading