Greg Oden is considered one of the biggest busts in NBA history. He was drafted No. 1 overall by the Portland Trail Blazers but since then he has been plagued by injury and spent more time on comebacks then actually playing on the court. In November he said he was done and had finally given up but he clearly still loves the game even playing pickup at the local YMCA and has been training at Ohio State where he was a stand out star. Apparently he’s not quite ready to give up yet.
Ohio State coach Thad Matta, in a Q&A before the NCAA tournament (via ProBasketballTalk):
Q. Have you had much contact recently with Greg Oden? How is he doing?
COACH MATTA: He’s doing great. It’s funny, I see Greg every day. He’s back in Columbus. Comes in, works out. I don’t know quite honestly if I’ve ever seen Greg as happy as he is right now in terms of everything is going great in his life. He’s made a lot of personal commitments to change. Having him around literally every single day and spending time with him, there’s no greater feeling. I’m excited for him.
Q. Coach, since you see Greg all the time, is your sense that he’s still got some NBA left in him? Is his career over?
COACH MATTA: I tell you what Greg is doing right now, he’s probably been six months of high-level conditioning, training in the weight room, working out on the court. Our coaches work him out. I think he’s right now trying to gauge how the body feels. There is a possibility he may make another run at it. He looks great. Probably about 280 pounds right now. I mean, quite honestly I haven’t seen Greg look this good since when he played for us back in the day at Ohio State. Like I said, his attitude is off the charts. He went through a lot. You look at Greg’s life, how difficult things have been. I know that he is a kid that never wanted to let people down. The injuries, you know, none of us can prevent those. I know there’s part of him that wishes that stuff couldn’t have happened. I still swear he was going to be one of the greatest to ever play in the NBA just from the year I was with him.
