NCAA Basketball: 25 most mesmerizing players of all time
. player. 490. . . . Greg Oden
Let’s move from the original uber-athletic big man to one of the more recent highly celebrated uber-athletic big men. People saw Greg Oden play in High School against Tyler Hansbrough in what was one of the few nationally broadcast games at the time. Hansbrough put up the numbers, Oden collected the win. In the game, it was somewhat difficult to see what all the fuss was about.
A 16 or 17-year-old kid that already looked 40, Oden was already widely known as “the next big thing”, but looked fairly mediocre in this matchup, while Hansbrough was running around like a guard. That matchup took place during Oden’s junior year in high school.
When he arrived at Ohio State in 2006 however, holy moly. He played like Steve Austin. He was bigger, faster, stronger and just plain better than anyone else on the court. He wasn’t a stretch five, he didn’t possess a jump shot. The formula was pretty simple: dribble, dribble, drop step, dunk. Rinse and repeat.
In his lone season at the collegiate level, Oden averaged 15.7 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.3 blocks in just 28.9 minutes played per game. His per 40 statistics were 22 points, 13 rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game. He is one of only seven freshmen dating back to 1995-96 to post more than 8 win shares in a season.
Oden would lead one of the greatest recruiting classes in college basketball history (Oden, Mike Conley, Daequan Cook, David Lighty) all the way to the National Title game before falling to the Florida Gators. He put 25-12-4 on the board that night.
Shortly after the National Championship game, it came out that Oden would need knee surgery. The Portland Trail Blazers still selected him with the #1 pick in 2007 ahead of Texas forward Kevin Durant. Oden never played in that season after having microfracture surgery, which was a brand new procedure at the time.
He would need a second microfracture surgery in 2010. Overall, he played only 105 games in parts of seven seasons. He didn’t make it on the court at all from 2010-2013. He was a player with limitless potential that was, unfortunately, let down by his body.