12 Jan 11 Greg Oden Is the Kind of Guy You Want on Your Team

Greg Oden woke up 5 months ago to an unsettling phone call.Nude pictures had surfaced on the Internet, and the world around him was crashing down upon him... Well, at least that's how the media and fans acted.The story is that two years ago Greg and his girlfriend at the time had been "sexting" Pittsburgh Steelers jersey
and having a good time. Apparently she kept the photos. To get back at him, she sent the photos to a Web site and the rest is history.LZ Granderson of ESPN.com said it best..."Penis.There, I said it. Not "thing" or "junk" or "stuff" or any other ridiculous euphemism we use to describe this particular area of the anatomy, as if it weren't part of the human body.About half the people in the world have one, and that includes Greg Oden.None of this is exactly breaking news, but for some reason, a good chunk of the country has been behaving as if the nude photos of the oft-injured Portland Trail Blazer that surfaced recently are a stop-the-presses issue. It's been on every sports blog the Internet offers up as well as sports talk radio and television shows from coast to coast, including ESPN.The only thing more ridiculous thanOden's apologizingfor taking the pictures are the folks who felt he needed to. As far as I can tell, he has nothing to apologize for -- and no, that isn't a thinly veiled size joke."The national media made this story way bigger than it needed to be. San Diego Chargers jersey
Greg Oden didn't do anything illegal. He didn't get in a fight. He wasn't fooling around with a prostitute or smoking weed out of the back of an Escalade.He had a lapse of judgement.That's it.There were no guns involved. No drugs. No illegal activity took place.We don't need to crucify the guy because he is guilty of being a kid.This leads me to my next point.He is a great guy. What professional athlete in recent memory has actually admitted first hand that they did something wrong?Alex Rodriguez? No.McGwire? No.Tiger Woods? No.Greg Oden handled this like a man. He did the right thing even though he didn't have to.He did the right thing even though the wrong thing was much easier, and I commend him for his maturity following his lapse in judgement. None of this regards his on court play, which in the moments he has been able to display it, he has been spectacular. This summer should be a huge turning point for Greg both mentally and physically.On the physical front there has been some movement. Trainer Jay Jensen said during a radio interview that they believe the reason Greg Oden has been having knee troubles is because his quad muscle is too powerful and is causing an imbalance in his muscle system. When a muscle doesn't have a neutralizing force on the other end, you begin to add extra stress onto San Francisco 49ers jersey
the tendons and other important structures and in this case, that is the knee. But thats beside the point.Greg Oden is the person of quality that every NBA team wants.Past injury issues aside, Greg Oden will be a dominant center.Rip city will have to be patient.But that will be easy since he has the kind heart and loving personality that Portland adores.Get better, Greg.