Greg Oden was done with basketball once. He realizes he could be at any time during his latest comeback attempt.
After his last knee surgery in February of 2012 and on the advice of the surgeon who performed his surgery, Oden decided not to pursue a career in the NBA.
That decision lasted all of two weeks, before he changed his mind.
In an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Oden said he couldn't walk away from the game without taking one more shot to play.
"After that surgery in 2012, my last surgery, the doctor said, 'Just be a regular person, go live life. Be a regular person. You would be perfectly fine walking out of this place and not have to worry about any rehab or anything,' " Oden related during a news conference and conference call at St. Vincent Sports Performance in Indianapolis, where he endured the most grueling portions of his rehab work. "And I did, and then two weeks later, I was stuck on NBA TV. That's just what I watch every day. I turn on TV and I'm watching NBA TV. I just wanted to play basketball. That's my love; that's what I wanted to do."
Oden, who signed a two-year, $2.1 million contract with the two-time champion Miami Heat, sounds excited for his latest opportunity and resigned by the fact that his body may not hold up during his latest opportunity at the same time.
"I got an old body," the 25-year-old center told the Sun Sentinel. "I'm going to put it like that. I understand. My body is not going to be when I was 18, able to run all day and jump over people. I can't do that now. It's just not going to happen. My knees, the wear and tear of the surgeries, I understand that. But I'm going to play as hard as I can, and I'm going to try to jump over people, and I'm going to try to run all day. If my body lets me, I'll do it.
"After three years of being out," he said, "I'm just going to go and do what I can, and my body is going to do what it can. If somehow it says no, then it says no. But, for me, I'm not even worried about that. I'm just going to go play and not even think about that. If it doesn't, I have to deal with it when it happens. Right now, I just want to go play."
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