When Portland hoped for Greg Oden to follow in Bill Walton’s footsteps, serious injuries weren’t quite what they had in mind. From the Oregonian’s Joe Freeman :

The Blazers announced that Greg Oden, the talented rookie center who was selected No. 1 in this year’s NBA draft, is expected to undergo exploratory arthroscopic knee surgery on Thursday after enduring ongoing pain in his right knee.

Blazers officials would not comment beyond a four-sentence news release issued Monday evening that said Oden underwent a magnetic resonance imaging last week and results revealed that he may have cartilage problems in the knee.

A team source told The Oregonian that the MRI results were inconclusive and that the damage could be as minor as a cartilage injury or as major as a ligament tear. The source added that if doctors find something more severe, they would operate immediately Thursday.

Oden’s agent, Mike Conley Sr., said Oden does not recall a specific incident that caused the injury, only that he experienced nagging pain last week.

“He cannot remember injuring his knee at all,” Mike Conley Sr. said. “I guess he just felt some discomfort. Greg can’t remember when he hurt it.”

I’m going to guess sometime between draft night and the end of Oden’s abortive summer league run.