After a spate of injuries to NBA stars in the recently concluded playoffs, former No. 1 pick Greg Oden, whose knee issues cut short what might have been a Hall of Fame career, shared a powerful message.
“Well, you can’t control any of that,” Oden said, speaking on behalf of Kendall-Jackson, the official wine of the NBA. “You know that’s not your fault, but the one thing you can do is listen to the doctors. Listen to the trainers. These guys are professionals.
“They work their whole lives to be in this moment, to help you be the best. So listen to them, and don’t think that you know more than them, or think WebMD knows more than them. And honestly, that’s what I tell everybody who goes with some type of issues.”
NBA stars — Dallas Mavericks‘ Kyrie Irving, Milwaukee Bucks‘ Damian Lillard, Boston Celtics‘ Jayson Tatum and Indiana Pacers‘ Tyrese Haliburton could miss a year or more rehabbing from their injuries. Irving tore his ACL before the playoffs while Lillard, Tatum and Haliburton broke their Achilles during the postseason.
Downtime and Wine
Oden commiserated with them as he endured far worse that limited him to just 105 games across three injury-plagued seasons after getting selected ahead of Kevin Durant in the 2007 NBA Draft.
“You’ve got to listen to your doctors,” Oden said. “You can’t miss out on rehabs two days out of the week. You’ve got to do everything that they asked of you while also growing as a person. Try to read a couple of books, try to add something to your game while you’re at it. That’s the one thing you can do, just to be the best person you can possibly be when you come on the other side of that injury.”
Alder AlmoKendall-Jackson, the official wine of the NBA.
With their downtime, they could sip wine while reading a book like Oden did during the pandemic.
“Secretly, I like ice in my red wine,” he confessed. “It tastes delicious. I don’t like warm drinks. But honestly, during the pandemic, I just didn’t want to drink alcohol while I was sitting at home every day like everybody else. So I started getting into some wine, something a little bit lighter, and now that’s actually the only thing I really drink.”
Kendall-Jackson’s top-tier wine, Verite Le Desir 2007, which is his draft year in the NBA, has become his favorite.
Greg Oden’s Life After NBA
Durant is still playing at an elite level at 37 and is on his way to the Hall of Fame. Oden, on the other hand, is enjoying his post-basketball life.
The 7-foot former Ohio State Buckeye star revealed he’s now into mentoring space, training kids and sharing his story that he hopes could serve as a light to people like him who are facing challenges in life.
Oden endured depression when he missed his entire rookie season after undergoing a microfracture surgery just two months after the Portland Trail Blazers made him the No. 1 overall pick.
“I didn’t really know what that mental health space was, or even what I was going through at that time,’ he said. “All I knew was I was by myself a lot. I was always a quiet guy anyway. So, it never bothered me. I never really thought I was suffering to know later on.”
Bowling and Blowing Out Knees
Oden recalled the moment he blew out his knees before his rookie season.
“This was actually a crazy story, I really got a pair of orthotics, and I went out and I went bowling in that same evening, and I swear that next day, I tried to put on some pants to go to the gym, and my knee didn’t even go through the jeans,” Oden said. “Like my knees just happened to blow up, and within a week later, I was having microfracture surgery, and I was out for the whole rookie season of mine.”
Oden, however, doesn’t pin the blame on playing bowling on that fateful night, but it was a culmination of a series of events that led to his knees blowing up, which began when he was still a kid.
“When I was in the sixth grade, my hip almost fell out of my leg,” Oden said. “And I went to get an X-ray, and by the time I got back to my house, my mom picked me up and took me right back. I had to have emergency surgery, and I still got the two pins in my hip to this day.
“My body adjusted to that. And all the games I played doing that, I think by the time — trying to fix all of that at once — it kind of, my body was just not ready for that change. And I think that’s what led to a lot of my knee problems.”
Oden is one of the biggest ‘What-Ifs’ in the NBA. But he’s already come to terms with his fate.
“Now, I’m happy,” he said. “I’m confident in myself. I still love the game of basketball, and yeah, I’m good.”
Greg Oden Continues to Pick Himself Up
Alder AlmoGreg Oden with Andscape’s senior writer Marc J. Spears during an intimate lunch with the press, hosted by Kendall-Jackson, the official wine of the NBA.
Oden refused to have his injury-marred NBA career define him.
“As a young kid and not knowing that situation you’re in, it took me a lot of therapists,” Oden said. “It took me a lot of soul searching, and it took me a long time to realize basketball is not going to define me. I’m a good person. I go out there and try my best to be the best person I can be. I try to put a smile on everybody’s face in the room that I mean, and that’s what’s going to define me, some of my failures, or, you know, bad looks. It’s not that that’s going to define me.”
While his proudest moment in the NBA began and ended on Draft Night, he still holds on to that core memory as a reminder of what he was able to accomplish with hard work and perseverance.
“So, now I’m able to understand that I’m comfortable with who I am and I’m happy for the journey, because it’s my journey,” Oden said. “I’m able to tell this story with a smile on my face and give people a little bit of light if they’re going through or struggling with some things that you can look at yourself and be like, ‘Look, I had some ups and downs, but I did pick myself back up, and I continue to pick myself back up.’ So, I’m not that person right now, because I can stick my chest out, and I can also say that I was the number one draft pick, one of 77 in the history of this world.”
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