Last season, one part of the NBA's opening night doubleheader featured the Portland TrailBlazers, a team who had just 32 wins in 2006-07. The draw, of course, was the professional debut of Greg Oden. G-ODE's knee mussed the plan up; within weeks of the schedule's release, Oden underwent microfracture surgery and announced he'd be making his debut in 2008.

Well, the NBA will not relent: Oden's Blazers -- a decent team in 2007-08, but only 10th in its conference -- will appear on Opening Night again, as Portland visits the Lakers on October 28 on TNT. That game will be preceded by a massive marquee match-up: Cleveland at Boston.

Oden's team -- err, Brandon Roy's team? -- will get plenty of pub past Opening Night, too. Portland will be on national TV more times in the first week (2) than some teams will be all season. The Blazers will have eight games on TNT, and five on ESPN (including a pair against San Antonio). Clearly, the NBA believes in either the drawing power of Oden or the idea Portland will be a surprise contender this season. We'll see.