For nearly two decades, Greg Oden has carried one of the harshest labels in sports: Biggest bust. Now, the former No. 1 overall pick is opening up about how he learned to live with it.
Speaking on The Pivot Podcast, Oden reflected on being selected ahead of Kevin Durant in the 2007 NBA Draft and how Durant’s rise to superstardom shaped public perception of his own career.
“Well, for one, I don’t let that term define me. Now, I’m always going to give nothing but praise to KD. I really appreciated when he said that.”
“But I also remember sitting in my living room when he hit that shot over Bron when he was with Golden State. They played Cleveland, right? He hit that long three. Do y’all remember what happened when they went to commercial? It was a Nike commercial. I was always number two. Number two draft pick. Number two this. This is the first thing. So he’s at the top of the moment, and then another moment. To me, it felt like I was being s**t on.”
“So for me, I’m looking at it like, all right, if Kevin Durant is this great, then technically, by comparison, I’m the biggest bust. That’s how I looked at it. Now, with the movie Bust, it’s a fictional story that my guy Richie made. But when he actually called me and sent the email, I looked over the script and I was like, I ain’t got to do nothing. But I really resonated with the story because it’s not about a bust. It’s about somebody getting a second opportunity. And I think that’s what’s overlooked in that word.”
“A bust is somebody that had the opportunity and did nothing with it and nothing happened. I think in this movie, and in my life, I got a second opportunity. I played in the NBA Finals with the Miami Heat, and that’s kind of what’s going on. I can’t really give it all away about the movie, but that’s a part of it as well. He gets a second opportunity, and we kind of look at him and go, ‘You’re not a f**king bust. You actually get another shot. So take f**king advantage of it.’ I look at that as well.”
“There are a lot of things that happened after Miami that I can’t really talk about legally. But I would just throw this out there. Y’all know what I mean by this. The Ray Rice situation, right? I had something like that afterward.”
“And then I’m trying to rehab and come back. I still want to play. So you go to the NBA, and because Ray Rice was still so fresh, the league goes, ‘All right, we’re not going to give you a suspension until you get on a team.’ Then the teams say, ‘We’re not going to sign him until we know what the suspension is.'”
“To me, that’s a never ending circle of basically being kicked out of the league. Nobody really talks about that. And I’m not going to say it was blackballed, but the Ray Rice situation had the country so up in arms at that time. It was such a sensitive issue that I could see it.”
The reality is that Oden’s basketball resume before the injuries was extraordinary.
At Ohio State, he played just one college season but immediately became one of the most dominant big men in the country. Despite playing much of the year with a wrist injury, Oden averaged 15.7 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks while shooting 61.6% from the field. He led Ohio State to the NCAA Championship Game, won First Team All-American honors, was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-Big Ten, and became the consensus top prospect in the 2007 draft.
Portland selected him first overall ahead of Durant. Unfortunately, injuries immediately derailed his NBA career.
Oden missed his entire rookie season following microfracture knee surgery. Additional knee injuries followed throughout his career, limiting him to just 105 NBA regular-season games across seven seasons.
For his career, Oden averaged 8.0 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks while shooting 57.4% from the field. His best season came in 2009-10 when he averaged 11.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks before another devastating knee injury ended his campaign.
That perspective extends to his NBA career as well. After years of injuries in Portland, Oden eventually returned with the Miami Heat and played in the 2014 NBA Finals alongside LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.
Oden also revealed that his basketball comeback efforts were complicated by off-court issues following his Miami stint. He referenced his 2014 arrest on allegations that he assaulted his girlfriend, a case that drew comparisons to the domestic violence allegations involving former NFL running back Ray Rice, whose controversy was dominating headlines at the time. Oden suggested the incident created additional barriers to returning to the league.
The interview follows other emotional revelations from Oden on The Pivot Podcast. He recently discussed battling addiction, taking multiple sleep aids and painkillers every night just to get four hours of sleep, and also argued that LeBron James is ‘technically’ the greatest player ever based on the numbers.
For Oden, the story is no longer about what could have been. It’s about surviving everything that happened afterward. And after years of being defined by one word, he’s finally telling people to look at the full picture.
