tlongII
09-06-2008, 06:37 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/sports/basketball/06oden.html?_r=2&ref=sports&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
When Greg Oden last stepped into the national spotlight, he wore a tuxedo and comically oversize glasses and his lone teammate was a pop-music heartthrob. Justin Timberlake sang and danced, while Oden provided the piano accompaniment in a memorable number at this summer’s ESPY awards.
It was a new side of Oden, although, as it happens, more a product of TV magic than classical training.
“I mean, I was playing the piano,” Oden, the Portland Trail Blazers’ center, said this week with a chuckle. “It was just muted.”
Such is the story of Oden’s year. He is a celebrity, but not yet a star; an able entertainer, but not yet on the basketball court; a curiosity looming just off the N.B.A. radar, still waiting to make a splash 15 months after Portland made him the top pick in the 2007 draft. The breathless hype that first accompanied his arrival has been muted by misfortune.
Knee surgery wiped out Oden’s much-anticipated rookie season — or, more accurately, postponed it. By league definitions, he remains a rookie, eligible for the 2008-9 Rookie of the Year award and presumably obligated to carry his teammates’ luggage.
This week, he belatedly met another obligation by attending classes at the N.B.A.’s rookie transition program in Rye Brook, N.Y.
“It’s something that I know I have to go through, and I don’t mind it,” Oden said while lounging on a plush couch in a conference room at the program’s headquarters. “I understand I have to be a rookie again. I’m getting a lot of good information. I’m just ready for the season to start.”
The good news is that the season is coming soon, and Oden, the Trail Blazers’ franchise player, expects to be ready for it. Oden is fully recovered from the microfracture surgery performed on his right knee last September. He is still working to regain his stamina, but he has a month to get ready for the Trail Blazers’ preseason opener and seven weeks before making his regular-season debut, on Oct. 28 against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Team officials seem confident Oden will be ready for both dates. He passed two major tests last month, going through full-contact drills on Aug. 4, then graduating to his first full-court, five-on-five scrimmage on Aug. 28.
“I was a little nervous,” Oden said.
The Oregonian documented every pivot and dunk and referred to parts of the Aug. 4 workout as “awe-inspiring.”
“I’ve got tingles,” Tom Penn, the Trail Blazers’ assistant general manager, told the newspaper.
Oden’s every step has been closely watched in the Pacific Northwest, where expectations have only grown in his absence. The young Blazers surprised the league by going 41-41 last season without him. Oden will join a lineup flush with budding talent, including the All-Star guard Brandon Roy, forwards LaMarcus Aldridge and Travis Outlaw and the sharpshooter Martell Webster.
Oden’s return should push the Trail Blazers into playoff contention for the first time since 2003, and perhaps into title contention in the near future. Coming out of Ohio State, Oden was viewed as a once-in-a-generation center, a skilled, powerful big man who could dominate the paint for the next decade. A year spent in the training room has hardly diminished those hopes.
“Once we selected Greg Oden, expectations just went out the roof,” Coach Nate McMillan said. “You immediately start thinking championship when you think about Greg Oden. One day you should be winning one. So expectations are very high, even though he hasn’t played one game. You can’t control that.”
McMillan cautioned that even the greatest players need a year or two to adjust to the N.B.A. — to say nothing of players coming off major knee surgery. The Blazers plan to be cautious with Oden’s practice schedule and his workload. They can afford to do so, knowing that Roy and Aldridge, who blossomed in Oden’s absence, are capable of carrying the team.
The Trail Blazers see another silver lining to Oden’s year off. He spent 82 games watching, observing and learning. McMillan often quizzed Oden during games, asking his opinion of the matchups.
“He had an opportunity to sit courtside and see the game and guys he will be matched up against,” McMillan said, “what their tendencies are, what they like to do, the size of the athletes.”
Amid the monotony of grueling two-a-day (sometimes three-a-day) workouts, Oden found other ways to entertain himself. He started a blog on Yardbarker, using the forum to update fans on his progress, gush about meeting the singer Rihanna and dabble in politics. In late February, he announced his support for Barack Obama’s presidential run and was rewarded with a brief phone call from Obama.
In May, as part of his rehabilitation, Oden spent 10 days mountain biking in Hawaii. He later attended the Indianapolis 500 with his brother and a cousin. Over the summer, he returned to Columbus to take a five-week biology class at Ohio State.
“I passed,” Oden said, his toothy grin flashing behind an overgrown beard.
A year ago, Oden seemed ready to buckle under the hype machine that follows top draft picks. The machine has since moved on to Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, and Oden, freed of the burden, seems remarkably at ease. His days of peering through microscopes and playing duets with pop stars are nearly over.
When Greg Oden last stepped into the national spotlight, he wore a tuxedo and comically oversize glasses and his lone teammate was a pop-music heartthrob. Justin Timberlake sang and danced, while Oden provided the piano accompaniment in a memorable number at this summer’s ESPY awards.
It was a new side of Oden, although, as it happens, more a product of TV magic than classical training.
“I mean, I was playing the piano,” Oden, the Portland Trail Blazers’ center, said this week with a chuckle. “It was just muted.”
Such is the story of Oden’s year. He is a celebrity, but not yet a star; an able entertainer, but not yet on the basketball court; a curiosity looming just off the N.B.A. radar, still waiting to make a splash 15 months after Portland made him the top pick in the 2007 draft. The breathless hype that first accompanied his arrival has been muted by misfortune.
Knee surgery wiped out Oden’s much-anticipated rookie season — or, more accurately, postponed it. By league definitions, he remains a rookie, eligible for the 2008-9 Rookie of the Year award and presumably obligated to carry his teammates’ luggage.
This week, he belatedly met another obligation by attending classes at the N.B.A.’s rookie transition program in Rye Brook, N.Y.
“It’s something that I know I have to go through, and I don’t mind it,” Oden said while lounging on a plush couch in a conference room at the program’s headquarters. “I understand I have to be a rookie again. I’m getting a lot of good information. I’m just ready for the season to start.”
The good news is that the season is coming soon, and Oden, the Trail Blazers’ franchise player, expects to be ready for it. Oden is fully recovered from the microfracture surgery performed on his right knee last September. He is still working to regain his stamina, but he has a month to get ready for the Trail Blazers’ preseason opener and seven weeks before making his regular-season debut, on Oct. 28 against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Team officials seem confident Oden will be ready for both dates. He passed two major tests last month, going through full-contact drills on Aug. 4, then graduating to his first full-court, five-on-five scrimmage on Aug. 28.
“I was a little nervous,” Oden said.
The Oregonian documented every pivot and dunk and referred to parts of the Aug. 4 workout as “awe-inspiring.”
“I’ve got tingles,” Tom Penn, the Trail Blazers’ assistant general manager, told the newspaper.
Oden’s every step has been closely watched in the Pacific Northwest, where expectations have only grown in his absence. The young Blazers surprised the league by going 41-41 last season without him. Oden will join a lineup flush with budding talent, including the All-Star guard Brandon Roy, forwards LaMarcus Aldridge and Travis Outlaw and the sharpshooter Martell Webster.
Oden’s return should push the Trail Blazers into playoff contention for the first time since 2003, and perhaps into title contention in the near future. Coming out of Ohio State, Oden was viewed as a once-in-a-generation center, a skilled, powerful big man who could dominate the paint for the next decade. A year spent in the training room has hardly diminished those hopes.
“Once we selected Greg Oden, expectations just went out the roof,” Coach Nate McMillan said. “You immediately start thinking championship when you think about Greg Oden. One day you should be winning one. So expectations are very high, even though he hasn’t played one game. You can’t control that.”
McMillan cautioned that even the greatest players need a year or two to adjust to the N.B.A. — to say nothing of players coming off major knee surgery. The Blazers plan to be cautious with Oden’s practice schedule and his workload. They can afford to do so, knowing that Roy and Aldridge, who blossomed in Oden’s absence, are capable of carrying the team.
The Trail Blazers see another silver lining to Oden’s year off. He spent 82 games watching, observing and learning. McMillan often quizzed Oden during games, asking his opinion of the matchups.
“He had an opportunity to sit courtside and see the game and guys he will be matched up against,” McMillan said, “what their tendencies are, what they like to do, the size of the athletes.”
Amid the monotony of grueling two-a-day (sometimes three-a-day) workouts, Oden found other ways to entertain himself. He started a blog on Yardbarker, using the forum to update fans on his progress, gush about meeting the singer Rihanna and dabble in politics. In late February, he announced his support for Barack Obama’s presidential run and was rewarded with a brief phone call from Obama.
In May, as part of his rehabilitation, Oden spent 10 days mountain biking in Hawaii. He later attended the Indianapolis 500 with his brother and a cousin. Over the summer, he returned to Columbus to take a five-week biology class at Ohio State.
“I passed,” Oden said, his toothy grin flashing behind an overgrown beard.
A year ago, Oden seemed ready to buckle under the hype machine that follows top draft picks. The machine has since moved on to Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, and Oden, freed of the burden, seems remarkably at ease. His days of peering through microscopes and playing duets with pop stars are nearly over.