Still on the Mend, Greg Oden Vows One Day to Be an All-Star

Filed under: Trail Blazers, NBA Injuries, NBA Preseason

Greg Oden claims he doesn't listen to all the talk about how Portland should have taken Kevin Durant instead with the top pick in 2007 and about how he's joined Bill Walton and Sam Bowie on an infamous list of Trail Blazers' injured centers.

But there is one thing Oden believes should be heard when he speaks.

"When I get out there 100 percent, everybody will see what kind of player I am,'' Oden said in an interview with FanHouse. "When I get 100 percent and I get to improve on the court, I feel I can be an All-Star.''

Oden has a long way to go to get there, but it's hardly unreasonable. He doesn't turn 23 until January, there's a dearth of centers in the NBA and Oden was playing some pretty good ball before he went down Dec. 6, 2009 with a knee injury that ended last season and from which he has yet to return.

Oden, taken No. 1 by the Trail Blazers in 2007 while Durant, the Oklahoma City star forward, went No. 2, already has missed a Walton- and Bowie-like 164 of 246 possible NBA games. He sat out his entire rookie season after undergoing microfracture surgery on his right knee and then came the surgery for the fractured left patella suffered when he went down 10 months ago against Houston.

 

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