Greg Oden was a grown man on court from Lawrence North to Ohio State to the NBA. He’s still young but his knees are far older. He’s all set for surgery #4 and another missed season. What if it was Kevin Durant in the Blazers hat on draft day?

Greg Oden is having his fourth knee surgery since being drafted first overall, ahead of superstar Kevin Durant.  Oden was a man among boys at Ohio State, leading the Buckeyes all the way to the National Championship as a freshman.  Such a promising career seems destined to end because of shot knees and Oden is still only 24.  Rest in peace to Greg Oden’s career, he was just too big for those knees to hold up.

Oden and Mike Conley made up a dominating duo in high-school at Lawrence North in Ohio, winning three 4a championships.  Oden was National Player of the Year his junior and senior year which is a honor usually reserved for the best senior in the country.  He’s 7-0 285 and he was that big back then.

The best  memory that we have of Oden in the national spotlight came in a dominating performance in the national championship loss to the Florida Gators of 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots.  That game boosted his stock sky high because he dominated Joakim Noah and Al Horford, even though Ohio State took the loss.

What If?:

The Portland Trailblazers have a good team at 13-10 overall.  A completely healthy 82 game Greg Oden would have made them into a championship team.  He’s a guy who would protect the paint by blocking shots at a high level and grab every rebound.  Oden looked like the perfect compliment playing next to LaMarcus Aldridge.  Marcus Camby gets the job done right now but a young, healthy Greg Oden would have potentially put them over top of the Thunder in the West.  Oden looked like a guy that could average a double-double with his only weakness being to develop a more polished offensive game.  You have to wonder how good he would have been and I think he could have been in the top 3 centers in the game along with Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum.

In hind-sight, the Blazers should have taken Durant.  It’s almost like drafting Sam Bowie ahead of Michael Jordan because Durant is a superstar.  Add Durant to the Blazers and take away Oden and the Thunder are a fringe playoff team and the Blazers are the most dominant force in basketball.  It’s obvious why the Blazers took him and that’s just because size like Oden’s is rare in the NBA.

Good luck to Greg Oden.  It would be a great story if he could recover from four knee operations to have a productive career.  He’s only 24 so he has the time but he has to be spent mentally.  Aside from that, his knees are shot and he most likely is going to have to go the way of Brandon Roy and retire.  I feel bad for him as he is really a good guy.  He could have milked 10 million out of a team but he signed for a fraction of that because he didn’t feel right being hurt and taking money.  Oden should go to Germany and see some doctors, Kobe and A-Rod did.