Greg Oden out for his first NBA season

Posted by ryan at 02:42 PM in ohio , sports . | 0 Comments

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Celebrated Trail Blazers rookie center Greg Oden, the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, will likely miss the 2007-2008 season after undergoing knee surgery Thursday, the team said.

"Greg had an arthroscopy and a microfracture surgery today," team physician Dr. Don Roberts, who performed the surgery, said in a statement posted on the Trail Blazers' Web site. "He was found to have articular cartilage damage in his right knee. The area of injury was not large and we were able to treat it with microfracture, which stimulates the growth of cartilage.

"There are things about this that are positive for Greg. First of all, he is young. The area where the damage was is small and the rest of his knee looked normal. All those are good signs for a complete recovery from microfracture surgery."

The 7-foot center is expected to be on crutches for up to eight weeks. It likely will take 6 to 12 months for full recovery, the team said.