Empty the Bench

Ohio State center Greg Oden is the #1 overall pick in next Thursday’s 2007 NBA Draft. Easy, done, next, Sonics, you’re up. But before it’s all said and done, Kevin Durant still might have a shot at leapfrogging Oden and coming off the board first.

The big man is still recovering from a broken right wrist, apparently, and a May physical revealed a bulging disk in his back. That, and according to reports trickling out of Portland, the 7-footer was somewhat underwhelming during his workout for the Blazers, alternately missing gimme lay-ups, gasping for air, and even apologizing to coach Nate McMillan about his play:

“I think I could have done a whole heckuva lot better,” Oden said. “I should have been more prepared, that’s how I feel about it, myself.”

Even though Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard said Oden “didn’t play his best basketball,” he said the workout did nothing to hurt Oden’s standing with the Blazers. The team knows what Oden can do on the court, Pritchard said, and the workout — even with a couple of missed layups and tuckered lungs — is merely a portion of their evaluation process. “We’ve watched tons of film on this kid, so we know who he is basketball-wise,” Pritchard said. “And it was really refreshing to see a kid say, ‘I know I can do better in this workout.’ He is a kid who is tough on himself, and I like that about him.”

Oden admitted that much of his showing was due to an initial case of nerves. When Oden walked into the gym wearing Blazers practice gear — a gray T-shirt and black shorts — he was startled. The sideline was filled from baseline to baseline with people, ranging from owner Paul Allen and newly named team president Larry Miller, to the entire Blazers scouting staff. Along the back wall of the gym, were the five Blazers players and team personnel.

“There were a lot more people than I expected,” Oden said. “I see the whole gym lined up looking at me like this (arms crossed, eyes squinted), and I’m like, ‘Oh, God.’ My heart started beating fast… I thought I would miss my first layup.”

It’s hard not to like this kid already. The basketball world has built Greg Oden, the potential NBA franchise cornerstone, into a near mythological figure who’s already one of the best big men in the league before even stepping onto a professional court. The truth is, however, that Greg Oden, the person, is a 19-year-old teenager dealing with his maturation into an adult on a stage that most of us couldn’t possibly fathom. I know, I know–his growing pains are soon going to be assuaged by millions of dollars in his bank account. That’ll surely help.

But this is still a teenager we’re talking about! Can you imagine the expectations and hype and buzz in that practice facility yesterday as you walked onto the court for–that’s right–a workout? Not a real practice, certainly not a real game. Every pair of eyes squarely fixated on you, assessing you, grading you, undressing you (kidding on that last one, though Zach Randolph was in attendance).

Greg Oden understands what’s expected of him. He knows that all the attention and dealing with all these expectations and the media et al is part of it. At the end of the day, he has to produce on the court–and he will. So don’t read too much into his on-court performance for the Blazers. At all. Because everyone knows about his basketball talents, but some, perhaps, aren’t entirely privy to his mindset.

Talent alone doesn’t guarantee NBA success; we don’t need to air a dirty laundry list of gifted b-ballers with shits for brains to hammer that point home. And judging by comments from Blazers brass and players, Oden is an amiable, very likeable guy with a knack for quickly winning people over:

If Oden didn’t live up to his reputation as a skilled and powerful big man on the court Wednesday, he exceeded his reputation as an engaging and likeable young man. Oden was at ease making wisecracks in front of the more than 100 people stuffed into the normally placid Blazers practice facility, and his personality has already won over the five Blazers players who attended the workout: Zach Randolph, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Dan Dickau and Ime Udoka.

“His personality stood out to me,” said Roy, who had an hour lunch with Oden and Aldridge on Tuesday. “The basketball stuff will take care of itself. But off the court, he’s a great guy, a very intelligent kid. Knowing the guys we have in the locker room, he’s definitely going to fit in right away. He’s somebody you’d want in the locker room.”

Minutes into the workout, it became so apparent that Oden was nervous that McMillan said he stopped the drills. “I tried to calm him down,” McMillan said. “It was like a circus in here — two cameras filming him, both sidelines packed — and I could tell he was a little nervous. To me, that was a good sign. He’s not in awe of himself. I just liked the fact he was humble. He didn’t act like he was bigger than Portland, or the organization.”

Keeping his ego in check and his feet grounded during this whole process, especially at his age, might come easy to Oden. It might not. Either way, it’s an incredibly important and telling look at a guy vying to become one of the NBA’s next great centers. We know his head is in the right place. And like G.I. Joe told us every day after school, knowing is half the battle.