Greg Oden's rehab included watching Miami Heat road games at Hooters.
Oden, a former No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, has not played a regular-season game yet for the two-time defending champion Heat. Miami signed him in the offseason, hoping to bring the injury-prone center along slowly in hopes that he can contribute in the playoffs next spring.
The Heat were in Toronto on Tuesday night and playing without center Chris Bosh, whose daughter was born on Monday. But instead of taking Oden on the road trip, the Heat left him back in Miami.
Oden was photographed at a Miami Hooters watching his team on television, according to bustedcoverage.com. Oden may have been a good-luck charm as the Heat won 104-95.
Miami coach Erik Spoelsta explained to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the team still wants Oden to continue working out at its training facility.
"He gets a ton more work in our facility," Spoelstra said. "That's our priority right now. We have all of our equipment there. So it's not only the weight equipment, but the AlterG [gravity-reducing treadmill], which is imperative for him right now.
"There's nothing alarming about this. He'll be with us when it makes sense for us."
Except for the fact that Greg Oden has not played an NBA game since 2009; that's what has the alarms set, if not sounding.
He played four minutes of an exhibition game in New Orleans last month, but the Sun-Sentinel reports that the Heat have set a deliberate rehab schedule for their fragile center as he works his way back from multiple knee operations.
"We'll see," Spoelstra told the Sun-Sentinel of a timetable for Oden's potential regular-season debut. "It's day . . . by . . . day."
And in the meantime, it's Hooters by night.
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