Oden, an NBA champion, was known for having great potential, but ultimately failed to cash in on his talent in the NBA due to too many injuries. He was a big, dominant man in college, and when he entered the league, he pushed Durant to become a champion.
Recently, foreign fans compared Auden to Zion Williamson, another promising rising star in the league. The fan noted that if Zion Williamson missed all the remaining games of the season, he would have played just three more games than Auden in the first 3 years of his career.
Greg Oden played 82 games in his first three seasons
Let's say Zion is reimbursed this year, and he's played just 85 games in his first three NBA seasons. ”
This season, Zion Williamson has been trapped with a right foot injury and has not yet played. Just today, local media in New Orleans reported that Zion's right foot was sore and that a second surgery was likely. Once this happens, the chances of Zion season reimbursement will increase dramatically. While that hasn't happened yet, Zion and Auden certainly have some similarities in their career battles with injuries.
Of course, there are also big men in the league who have successfully recovered from injuries. Joel Embiid also had frequent injuries at the start of his career, but he is now a superstar and MVP candidate. Zion Williamson can still come back and do the same thing.
Zion Williamson still has a lot of potential, and there's no doubt he's an NBA player at a different level than Oden. Zion Williamson averaged 27.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game in 2020-21, which Oden has not achieved in any NBA season. However, his durability was indeed an issue for the New Orleans Pelicans. Hopefully, Zion Williamson will be able to get out of these early injuries and develop into the superstar he expected.