YAYsports! NBA

(Jack Cobra running at you quickly.)

If I had ACL surgery I’d probably sit at home and gain 40-50 pounds, I have no doubt about that. Actually, it would probably take less than that. Maybe the death of a loved one or possibly the purchase of a good video game. Luckily for the TrailBlazers, Greg Oden is a little more motivated than me:

The first thing that pops out is his upper-body. His shoulders are bursting, and his biceps are now cut and defined.

And get this: A high-ranking Blazers source told me that Oden today still has the same body-fat percentage (7.8 percent) as he did when the Blazers drafted him, yet he has gained nearly 30 pounds, bringing him near 280 pounds.

Translation: That’s 30 pounds of muscle that has been attached to his upper-body (he hasn’t been able to do any lower body weight training because of his knee surgery).

And I tell you, it’s noticeable when you see him in short sleeves. He’s not quite Karl Malone ripped, but his body has definitely taken to the weight program of Bobby Medina. And remember, Oden wasn’t able to lift during college because he was recovering from a wrist injury. So imagine what this kid is going to look like after 10 months more of working out in the weight room.

All that talk about upper body and shoulders sounds a little ghey to me, but it’s good to hear that Oden is working out. Of course he’s going to be bigger, he was about as thick as a non-thick milkshake when he was at Ohio State. It’s like a natural progression for him to gain weight like this. While all this talk about bulging biceps and stout shoulders is good, it’s his lower body (which he can’t workout now) that will allow him to be successful in the NBA. Anyone who saw Tyson Chandler get pushed around in the post (second TC mention today!) his first few years in the league knows that big men need to have a strong/solid base to do anything.

Nevertheless, a strong upper body and solid shoulders will help Oden become the Ninja he’s meant to be. Those Chinese Stars don’t throw themselves and nunchucks obviously take some effort. He’ll probably have to buy a new ninja suit now, but those are fairly easy to find. Then again, he probably has his own tailor to take care of stuff like that.

*For those of you interested in watching a train wreck. I am sort of live blogging today on my site. We have a kid who is going to try to eat, and keep down, 100 Christmas Tree Peeps over the course of five hours.