The next episode: Rooting for Greg Oden’s comeback
Greg Oden pictured here during his time with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2007. The seven-foot big man signed a one-year contract with NBA Champions Miami Heat. (Getty Images)
What is a professional basketball player that can’t play professional basketball?
Matter of fact, what are any of us when we are robbed of the very essence of whatever makes us, ‘us’? What’s a doctor that can’t practice medicine, a teacher that isn’t allowed to teach, or a sports-writer with nothing to write about?
Imagine a life where a pastime becomes a hobby, a hobby becomes an addiction, that addiction is mastered and dominated, the mastery becomes a lifestyle, the lifestyle becomes the life’s one true love, and the one true love becomes a career.
And then, just as the ideal fairytale plays out perfectly, it is all snatched away and turns into a recurring nightmare, before the hobby, the lifestyle, the career and the nightmare are all left behind for torturous nothingness.
Welcome to the life of Greg Oden.
It’s easy to forget about 25-year-old from New York. About what he was, and about what he should have been. This is the same man, who only six years ago, was touted to be the saviour of big men in the NBA.
A 7-foot beast of a man-child, who dominated High School basketball with his unstoppable mix of size, strength and fluidity, Oden was referred to as a once-in-a-decade player by Steve Kerr and led the Ohio State Buckeyes all the way to the NCAA Championship game in his only year in college.
Oden was the best young player in the country, who was picked first in the 2007 NBA Draft by the Portland Trailblazers, ahead of a certain University of Texas talent by the name of Kevin Durant. And, based on his size and potential, the majority agreed that it was a fine decision.
And then, just as the young star had achieved his dreams of turning a childhood hobby into a profession, the nightmare began.
Before he could ever play an NBA game, Oden had a micro-fracture surgery on his right knee, which kept him out of action for the whole 2007-08 season. The rookie year was postponed for 2008-09, but it started with a bad omen again.
In his debut game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Oden left with a foot injury just 13 minutes into the game. He returned two weeks later against the Miami Heat and scored his first points in the NBA.
And things got better from there, as Oden began to find some rhythm in the NBA, mostly as a backup, and then eventually earning a starting spot. But before the season ended, there was yet another roadblock, as he hurt his kneecap in February 2009 and missed yet another month of action. He averaged 8.9 points and seven rebounds through 61 games.
NBA Commissioner David Stern (L) poses for a photo with Greg Oden of Ohio State after he was drafted first by the Portland Trailblazers during the 2007 NBA Draft (Getty Images)
Meanwhile in Seattle, and then Oklahoma City, Durant was blossoming into a true NBA star, the type of once-in-a-decade player that Oden was supposed to be. Whispers of the once prodigious giant being a ‘bust’ became louder, and Oden was being compared to the long list of Portland’s draft tragedies.
But Oden refused to cave in, and started the 2009-10 season in dominating fashion. Now a guaranteed starter in a young and rising squad that also featured LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy, Oden began to show flashes of his high school and college potential.
Oden averaged an improved 11.7 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. In a win against the Chicago Bulls, he exploded for a career-high 24 points to go with 12 rebounds in late November. On December 1st, 2009, he scored 13 points and grabbed 20 rebounds against the Heat.
The Heat were the first team that Oden scored points against. They would also be the last.