I started reading this column by Gene Wojciechowski and thought I didn't buy its premise, stated in the opening sentence: Greg Oden isn't ready for the NBA.
But then I kept reading and found something I really didn't buy. Wojciechowski runs down the list of reasons Oden has for leaving college, and one of them is this:
No more ... folding his 7-foot, 270-pound body into a coach seat when flying commercial.
I absolutely refuse to believe that Greg Oden flies commercial and sits in coach. Oden has a foot and 100 pounds on me, and I can barely tolerate the cramped quarters in coach. Are we to believe that Ohio State flies commercial to its road games? In high school Gatorade flew Oden first class. Has he really been downgraded since he went to Ohio State?
The rest of the column is an interesting comparison between Oden and Tim Duncan, but the basketball world has changed so much since Duncan's senior season that the comparison doesn't strike me as particularly apt. No matter how he flies now, Oden will be flying to NBA games next year.
