Greg Oden is fed up. He’s tired of hearing the media refer to him as a bust.
The 7-foot, 22-year-old former Ohio State center was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft. It’s now 2010, and because of a myriad of injuries, Oden played in only 82 games in his first three seasons. Meanwhile, the player selected after him, Kevin Durant, won the league scoring title last year for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The simple fact that he’s yet to remain healthy provides fuel for controversy that Oden said the media love to capitalize on.
“I know that I can play a big part in this league and definitely help my team win a lot of games,” Oden said in an interview with The Lantern last week. “But a lot of people in the media like to talk smack and make things sound more evil than they actually are. Injuries are something you just can’t control.”
Oden was projected to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft even before he left Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis. His list of awards included the 2006 Naismith Prep Player of the Year, Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 2006 and the two-time USA Today and Parade Magazine Player of the Year.
On June 29, 2005, Oden and former high school teammate Mike Conley Jr. announced they would be attending Ohio State. Oden was the centerpiece member of the heralded “Thad Five.”
Oden averaged 15.7 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.3 blocks in his only season as a Buckeye. He led the team to the National Championship against the defending champion Florida Gators, an 84-75 loss.
“I feel like if we had another chance, we would win that game,” Oden said. “Get us on another day, when I was playing well and our threes were falling, and we definitely would have won that game.”
Despite the losing effort at the end of his freshman year, Oden said that his year at OSU was probably the best of his life.
“Little things like hanging out in the dorms with my teammates, being around people while going to class and attending football games, I love everything about Columbus and Ohio State,” Oden said.
Despite his affection for OSU, Oden left after his first season to turn pro. He said he took classes during the summer of 2009, “but the opportunity to go to the NBA and be the No. 1 pick, which was a dream of mine, is something I couldn’t pass up because you never know what’s going to happen.”
Oden’s concerns about staying healthy were well founded. After Portland chose him with the top pick, he missed his entire rookie season following microfracture surgery on his right knee on Sept. 14, 2007.
In his second season, his healthiest to date, he averaged 8.9 points and seven rebounds in 61 games. It’s unclear how healthy Oden was throughout the year, as a bone chip in his left knee and a right foot sprain caused him to miss 21 games.
After his second season in the pros, Oden worked hard throughout the summer to begin tapping into his potential.
“He really put in work the summer before. I spent 11 weeks with him, and he never took a week off,” said Bill Bayno, assistant coach of the Blazers. “He expanded his post game, worked on his conditioning, his footwork and his left hand. And it was paying off.”
When the 2009-10 season began, Oden showed glimpses of his talent, averaging close to a double-double. In his last seven games, he averaged 15.6 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.
Then disaster struck again. Oden broke his left kneecap in a Dec. 5, 2009, game against Houston.
“It’s very frustrating knowing that I’ve been injured so much,” Oden said. “I want to be out there playing and I want to show everybody what I can do.”
Oden has found himself in controversial situations off the court as well. In January, nude photos of Oden, which he took using his cell phone camera, showed up all over the Internet. Oden said the photos were taken for an ex-girlfriend and weren’t supposed to be seen by anyone else.
“It was a while ago and it was really nothing that I could control,” Oden said. “All I could do was go out and apologize and try to at least clean up my image a little bit. It happened, people hyped it up, and all I can do is deal with it and stay the person that I am.”
Oden held a press conference Jan. 26 and apologized to fans, the team and his family. The incident gave Oden critics even more ammunition.
“He’s far from a bust. I would hope that Greg doesn’t pay a whole lot of attention to it, but I think he does because he’s a sensitive kid and a really good person,” Bayno said. “The way to generate media attention is to talk about (Oden) being a bust. It creates excitement and controversy. But the book isn’t closed on him.”
Oden is out of the Blazers lineup and continues to test his knee in practice. Team officials said Oden is looking at a late November return.
A Blazers spokesman told The Oregonian Friday that Oden would not be offered a contract extension after this season, making him a restricted free agent at the end of the year.
Still, Oden said that when he’s finally ready to return to the court, he’ll live up to the lofty expectations that followed him into the NBA.
“When I was out there playing, I think I was doing a pretty decent job,” Oden said. “I just have to get over these unfortunate injuries. All those media people saying that I’m a bust, they can think what they want to, but I know what I can do.”