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I'm not a doctor. I do not have inside access to the Trail Blazers medical staff. I have experienced a torn MCL, and I can vouch for the fact that it is very painful and takes a long time to recover from... and I don't even play basketball 82 times a year.

Greg Oden's current injury is being referred to as a chipped bone in his knee. You do not need an education in medicine or experience with knee injuries to know that this must be very painful.

The Blazers have scheduled Oden for a more thorough examination this morning. As usual, I'm sure the team will err on the side of caution no matter what the diagnosis, but the big question here is whether or not Oden's season is done.

Needless to say, Oden has a lot of fans here in Portland pulling for him to have a quick and full recovery... however, there is also a growing faction of doubters here who cite this latest injury as "further proof" that the Blazers should have taken Kevin Durant on Oden's fateful draft night.

I for one refuse to sow the seeds of negativity against a guy who has, so far, done everything he can to overcome some very big obstacles (microfracture knee surgery, a year away from basketball, ridiculous expectations) and show a lot of the potential we saw in him on draft day... he just needs to find consistency... but to find consistency, the Big Fella needs to stay healthy and be on the court.

This injury was quite unfortunate, and the timing was unfortunate. Oden was beginning to put together solid (yet sporadic) strings of consistently dominant play... 5 games of promising dominance, usually followed by another 5 that smacked of a rookie big man still trying to find ways not to foul out of a game. My philosophy was that Coach Nate McMillain should have just let Oden foul out of games so he could play his way through his conundrum.

But now, when Oden returns (if he returns this season) the Blazers will be engaged in a grind it out battle with Western Conference foes for playoff positioning. At this point in the season, the team's priorities shift to winning games and nothing else. Oden may have to take a seat on the bench behind the more experienced and consistent Joel Pryzbilla. That could be a very good thing for this rookie center to see, but of course, we need Oden healthy to give Pryzbilla some strong backup minutes off the bench.

I hope Oden gets some relieving news from the doctor today... I really hope he does not have to sit out the rest of the season because of ANOTHER knee injury. We have seen glimpses of the dominating potential Oden has. I hope he stays healthy enough to realize that potential. His team could really use it.