It's been a long, long time since I last saw Greg Oden dunking on dudes on national television. Too long, really.
Oden had his magical year at Ohio State while I was a student there, and words can't really describe how incredible it was to be a fan of a team with a literal leviathan on the squad. Prime Greg Oden was a ridiculous force of nature, saving Ohio State's bacon multiple times throughout the season and NCAA tournament, culminating in a virtuoso performance in the championship game that unfortunately went to waste.
Still, watching him ball out (mostly with one hand!) was an honor and a privilege, which my buddy Gary and I honored that season with a nine foot tall snowman we dubbed Greg Sno(w)den.
Anyway, after that, stuff happened. NBA, injuries, blah blah blah. At one point in the CBS broadcast of his BIG3 matchup, an unctuous sideline reporter did the whole "heh heh I don't want to ask, but I have to ask" thing with regard to Oden's injuries. He wasn't interested in answering questions about that and frankly I'm not interested in hearing them either, so let's focus on what exactly the BIG3 is and how Oden performed.
The BIG3 is a 3-on-3 league with 12 teams of mostly former NBA players, where teams play to 50 on a half court. Oden, drafted in May to play for the Aliens, suited up in Indianapolis today in his first real basketball since a brief appearance in the TBT tournament last year, and then did his thing once again.
Of course, that's not all Greg Oden is up to. He's an Ohio State graduate, a dad, has been working with Thad Matta and Chris Holtmann as a student assistant coach, and is pursuing his own career in basketball coaching. All of those things are pretty great and exciting, but selfishly what I really couldn't wait for was to see him back down someone in the paint and dunk a basketball straight into the bowels of hell, which I got.
Oden finished with 8 points and 6 rebounds, and while he was pretty clearly gassed by the end of the game (which the Aliens lost to the Triplets, 50-40), all that matters to me is that Greg Oden is still around, and he's still dunking.
