[Buckskin86]

Blazers? Oden Ready for His Close-Up, on the Court
By HOWARD BECK
Published: September 5, 2008

When Greg Oden last stepped into the national spotlight, he wore a tuxedo and comically oversize glasses and his lone teammate was a pop-music heartthrob. Justin Timberlake sang and danced, while Oden provided the piano accompaniment in a memorable number at this summer?s ESPY awards.

It was a new side of Oden, although, as it happens, more a product of TV magic than classical training.

?I mean, I was playing the piano,? Oden, the Portland Trail Blazers? center, said last week with a chuckle. ?It was just muted.?

Such is the story of Oden?s year. He is a celebrity, but not yet a star; an able entertainer, but not yet on the basketball court; a curiosity looming just off the N.B.A. radar, still waiting to make a splash 15 months after Portland made him the top pick in the 2007 draft. The breathless hype that first accompanied his arrival has been muted by misfortune.

Knee surgery wiped out Oden?s much-anticipated rookie season ? or, more accurately, postponed it. By league definitions, he remains a rookie, eligible for the 2008-9 Rookie of the Year award and presumably obligated to carry his teammates? luggage.

Last week, he belatedly met another obligation by attending classes at the N.B.A.?s rookie transition program in Rye Brook, N.Y.

?It?s something that I know I have to go through, and I don?t mind it,? Oden said while lounging on a plush couch in a conference room at the program?s headquarters. ?I understand I have to be a rookie again. I?m getting a lot of good information. I?m just ready for the season to start.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/sp...tml?ref=sports