Greg Oden article

Usually I would put NBA-related stuff in the NBA thread (now solely inhabited by me anyways) , but I thought this article was really interesting

Sheds a lot of light on behind-the-scenes stuff about him that was never revealed to the public, and makes me feel sorry for what he has had to go through, and confirms to me why the Blazers have had such bad luck and why you shouldn't really feel that bad for them (except in the case of guys like BRoy and Oden's injuries). Sure, the whole partying and dong pic were immature, but the lack of any proper mentor/guidance and compounding outside pressure and young age may have contributed to that. Wish the dude luck in his comeback (don't call it a comeback!) and I atleast have always liked his off-court personality when he decided to show them. Hold on strong brotha.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id...-overall-pick-greg-oden-injury-plagued-career


fyi, the author of this article was his teammate and apparently long time friend of his from Ohio St.
(or you may have seen this video of the dude)

Sucks for him that he can't get healthy, but with that 1st pick in the draft money, he should still have more money than I'll ever make. Plus he's only 24 years old. Plenty of time to go a different direction in life. Hard to feel sorry for him at all. Thankfully Portland picked him giving the Sonics the Durant pick.

Sigh.....dude had the weight of the world on his shoulders and basically was pressured from within and the fans to push his knees to the limit to return, then he had to face the death of his cousin (who admittedly got him into some internal trouble in the first place). But the dude is otherwise a very private and good dude. The author/former teammate said the same thing.
Who gives an Ish if he's still rich? Even he said so himself that the money means nothing to him, and that he would rather be balling and fullfilling his dreams. He has faced a lot of misfortunes in his life and that is unfortunate. Saying that it is "hard to feel sorry" for him , on top of saying how lucky OKC/Sonics were in getting the Durant on the back of his misfortunes is pathetic.

Lol. Pathetic? 98% of the people in the world say "cry me a river" to Oden's hardluck story. We've all had and will have close relatives and friends that die. We've all had pets die. People get hurt on the job everyday, but they don't have a millions of dollars worth of a golden parachute to tide them over until they move onto their next venture. Especially since he's got his whole life ahead of him. And yes, him being rich does mean almost everything. If he can't live his dream of playing in the NBA, but he wants to stay around basketball, he can finish his degree and go into coaching and still live better than most. Hell, he could coach little league and never have to worry about how he's going to pay his bills. He could open a community center in his hometown and have a fullfilling life. Spare with the money doesn't buy happiness b.s. Yeah, it doesn't but it helps and it gives you more options in life. Don't even try to act like I'm rejoicing in his misfortunes, my original post was my emotional response to the story (which is basically..... "Eh, he'll be fine.") Remember we're reading this story through the view of Oden's 24 year old buddy. When I was 24 I thought things were gloom and doom that when I look back on where just forks in the road.

And hell yes, the Thunder is lucky that Portland picked Oden instead of Durant. Being that they were the top 2 picks in the draft, it could've went either way. I don't give a crap if you think it's pathetic to mention that. It's the truth. The Thunder is where they are because of Durant and Portland lost a ton of money on a guy that can't stay healthy. Everybody involved in the Portland organization wishes in hindsight that they would've taken Durant instead.

You act like I'm talking trash on someone's "so and so...rest in peace" thread.

And just for fun:

Portland is also wishing they had picked Michael Jordan instead of Sam Bowie. These things wouldn't happen if they invested in a good training staff who helps played come back from injuries. Do you think Brandon Roy's retirement was an accident? No! He didn't have any help getting healthy.

I feel bad for the guy and hope he gets back into the game. That said at least he has his head on straight and is being smart with his money and going back to school.

dude has millions of little green tissues with presidents faces.

spend some money on a therapist, deal with your issues privately, and then go make a living doing what you love doing.

Brian Grant, Rasheed Wallace, Clyde Drexler,Buck Williams, Jerome Kersey and many others never had problems off the court there.

Sebastian Telfair, Qyntel Woods, Damon Stoudamire, Bonzi Wells, and others who were knuckleheads there were knuckle heads everywhere else too.


The only player I've ever seen be an assclown there and have a clean nose everywhere else is Jermaine O'Neal. Portland is one of the nicest cities in the country, beautiful place, small town.

I can respect him trying to better himself, but just do it and don't make a production out of it, by calling attention to yourself.

Read the story this morning after hearing a piece on ESPN about it. It seems like Oden is trying to fix his issues both on and off court. He has gotten a bad break on his NBA dreams. Seems like he understands that there is life after basketball; him going back to Ohio State proves that. I hope the guy gets healthy and makes a difference on an NBA team simply because it would be a good story of redemption.

OF69 this is literally the only interview he has ever done and he only did it because he and Mark Titus grew up together. He's not making a big deal out of it... He actually seems to be dealing with it quite well.

I wonder what the negative reactions to Greg Oden would be like if instead of a Blazer he became a member of the Sonics/Thunder. What if he went to a different OSU?

I feel bad, because the reason he didn't live up to expectations were because of injuries not himself.

Exactly. It's not like he's doing drugs and shooting up clubs or anything like that. He's just hurt and not getting the treatment he needs and then rushing into things. He's been pretty good in the few games he has played in. If he was a Poke we would be defending him.

I know they are people but I always struggle to feel bad for the guy who's getting paid eleventy billion dollars to sit around, rehab, and bang hot chicks. I'm sure I would slip into a terrible depression if I had a two foot long wang, 50 million bucks, no work requirements and hundreds of nubile women throwing themselves at me. The pressure would be more than I could stand.

Are you saying you looked up his nudie pics?

The blur on deadspin was all you needed to see to know what the picture was......