NBA Rookie Of The Year

Portland Trailblazers center, Greg Oden, finally gets back on the court and looks to make good this season on the promise he showed 2 years ago when he was drafted #1 after his freshman season at Ohio State. Remember when media types were talking about the dearth of quality young big men in the league after Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, and Hakeem Olajuwan retired? Well I think Oden represents the new group of center domination that we are likely to see for the next 15 years, with the likes of Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum. These three players have superstar written all over them. One level down there are players like Andrew Bogut, Al Horford, and Al Jefferson, who will all be All Stars, but not Hall of Fame caliber guys. Overall, this is an exciting time once again for fans of the big men in the NBA. There are still holdovers like Shaq, Yao Ming, Tim Duncan, Tyson Chandler, and Rasheed Wallace, that are at varying times in their career, but no center conversation can be made without them. This is going to be a great season in the paint.