Today I feel bad: for Greg Oden, for Blazers' GM Kevin Pritchard and for the Topps Company, who made Oden their poster boy for 2007-08. Pritchard and Oden may have known about the big guy's physical problems going into the draft, but what about the embattled Mothership? It's never a good thing for your spokesman to suddenly go off the national stage, but for it to happen right after your rival backs off from hostile takeover threats? While out of their control, the timing really couldn't be worse.

Oh, sure, collectors won't be finding Oden's cards in the ten-cent bin just yet, and because he's a young player, many news media outlets are already predicting a full recovery.

Who knows? Maybe an off-year will help give more collectors opportunity to pick up his cards at a lower price. But the question at the back of everyone's mind lingers: are we looking at the next Bill Russell (as Topps would want you to believe), or the next Pervis Ellison?



More Goudey Trade-away posts coming this evening, and all through the weekend. So far we've got 62 trades lined up, but there's plenty left if you'd like to get in on the fun. Email me if you're interested.