Georgia Tarheel Sportse

Greg Oden pumps brakes on comeback talk, looks forward to becoming a gym teacher

When last we heard tell of former No. 1 overall draft pick/crumbled-knee avatar of sadness Greg Oden, the word out of his camp (and, more specifically, out of agent Mike Conley Sr.) was that the star-crossed ex-Portland Trail Blazers big man was not only interested in joining up with the eventual world champion Miami Heat, but that he also had designs on returning to the NBA fold for the 2012-13 season.

The timeline seemed stunning given all the updates that had preceded it — a February report that Oden's left knee wasn't even healthy enough to undergo surgery, the Blazers' March decision toofficially sever ties with their long-hoped-for centerpiece, an April assertion that insufficient medical staffing in Portland helped ruin Oden's putative career and a May announcement (in an interview rife with dark revelations about Oden's tenure in Portland) that the center planned to step away for the entire '12-13 campaign to rest up, heal up, strengthen up and prepare to take another stab at it as a 26-year-old on the other side of three microfracture surgeries in five years. Apparently, we weren't the only ones who thought Conley Sr.'s timetable seemed a bit accelerated.

In an interview with David Hughes of the Terre Haute, Ind., Tribune-Star at a dinner promoting a charity golf tournament benefiting the Terre Haute Boys & Girls Club, Oden "disputed Internet reports" that he wanted to play in Miami and play this season:

"I would love to play [in 2012-13], but I'm not going to rush anything," he said [...] "I need to take a year off. What I told Mike was 'Look, I want to get back with a team. I want to play. If there's a chance that later on in the [NBA] year, if I feel good or if I'm healthy enough to play, I would love to play this year.' That's the conversation we had. I think some people kinda blew that up and took his words and kinda changed them around. I know I need to get healthy first before I do anything." [...]
"It's not like teams are out there telling people they want me, because they're not right now," Oden explained. "And I'm not out there telling people I want to go to a certain team. I want to go to a place where I can get healthy and with somebody who can believe in me and my skills — somewhere it could be a good fit for the both of us."