Greg Oden is well aware that his NBA legacy — if you can even call it that — is not a good one. He is more than willing to accept that.
Oden, who is currently taking classes at Ohio State while working as a student assistant coach for the basketball team, told ESPN’s Outside the Lines this week that he knows people will argue there is no bigger draft bust in NBA history than him.
“I’ll be remembered as the biggest bust in NBA history,” Oden admitted, according to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. “But I can’t do nothing about that.”
Oden was taken by the Portland Trail Blazers with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 draft. It doesn’t help that Kevin Durant was the player who was selected right behind him, and Oden acknowledged a couple of years ago that his bust status will only become worse as Durant continues to succeed.
It’s hard to remember a player with worse injury luck than Oden. Even when he did manage to get on the court, the 28-year-old admits he struggled with addiction and did his career no favors.
While there have been other notorious draft busts in professional sports who simply could not perform at the professional level (JaMarcus Russell, anyone?), Oden can at least rest knowing his failures were largely not in his control. That probably isn’t much consolation.
