An old lady asks Greg Oden if he plays basketball
Greg oden is only 38 dude has always looked old
This was at least 2 years ago too. Looks like he just came from class and you can see the math building in the background.
He got his bachelors degree in 2019 and masters in 2024.
I didn’t know this, but it makes me really happy for him. I’ve always felt so bad for him with how his body just failed him.
I’ll never forget, I was watching the game where his kneecap fractured. It didn’t look like he landed badly or anything. He just jumped, contested a shot, landed, and his fucking kneecap fractured.
Always felt so sorry for him, because his body literally just wouldn’t let him play. Glad to see he’s got his education.
He was playing so well too. At the time dumping the ball into Greg was such a good set for us.
He was so unbelievably good. Hindsight is 20⁄20, but good enough that no one really questioned him getting drafted ahead of KD at the time.
As we get further removed from that era folks always talk about Brandon Roy, Danny Granger etc. being “what if?” guys. But Greg Oden moved in such a way that defied logic as a 7ft big man
apparently, it also defied physics and biology
I was at that game. Happened right in front of the Rockets bench and they were all immediately horrified. Poor Greg
Same here. Brought my girlfriend to the game after convincing her that basketball is amazing to watch live. I had a very sad night, and probably made for a crappy date.
When that happened I remember watching an interview with some analyst (maybe Simmons) saying that on draft night they watched both Oden and Durant walk down from the stage and they knew right away that Oden wasnt going to last long in the league due to injuries. There was just something about his walk and posture that didn’t look right.
Simmons was famously one of the only big media people to correctly call out Durant over Oden.
People like to pretend he wasn’t extremely lonely on that island but I feel like I have a pretty unbiased memory of that time (I was a Sonics fan back then, but have always also liked the Blazers.)
It was like 95 percent to 5 percent Oden > Durant
Oden and Roy could have had a great run.
I had just moved to Portland right after he was drafted. People were so excited and then it all came crashing down. Then Brandon Roy the next year, Blazers are cursed with injuries.
I didn’t know this either.
On August 11, 2014, Oden was charged with battery for punching his ex-girlfriend in the face four days prior in Lawrence, Indiana. He pleaded guilty in 2015 to battery with moderate bodily injury, and the other three charges were dropped.
Didn’t know this either. That’s super shitty. I’m on a fucking rollercoaster of emotions in this post.
He still made $24 million and is financially secure for the rest of his life, as are his family and kids. I’d feel worse for someone who never got the contract.
I mean that is pre taxes for what it’s worth. He actually made significantly less than that.
It’s not about the money though, it’s the fact he had a legit passion, he was one of the best in the entire world at it, and it was taken away from him by is own body. He did nothing wrong. No one screwed him. His body just wouldn’t hold up for him.
I’m happy he’s at least got a new passion that is strong enough to propel him forward to earn a masters.
I get the rest of your statement that it is not about the money, but the “pre taxes” part is funny to me. If anyone wants to give me $24M pre taxes that still sounds amazing and I would still be set.
I mean yeah for sure, I would be set as well but 12m dollars is a LOT less than 24m when you’re attempting to talk about generational wealth. Even if you’re really smart about managing it, the compounding interest and it’s ability to make money for you in the markets or whatever super rich people do to have their money make them money, is significantly reduced.
Also, you don’t just have all the money from an NBA salary over a decade ago. His agents got paid, lawyers, a lot of hands out along the way. I’d be surprised if he has over 3 million left
That’s more than I’ll have grossed total in my career. Good to keep in perspective how much money that still is.
I totally agree. Just saying it would be a shame to lose that much
Yup, that’s “live reasonably comfortably for the rest of your life” money, but not “act like a crazy rich guy for the rest of your life” cash.
But living comfortably for the rest of your life without working is…a huge fucking deal.
3 million is a nightmare for Greg. Enough to ruin regular work, but not enough to truly retire /s
I usually assume that a person’s gross money made was about half of the total since it’s 40 or 45% to taxes and 5 to 10% to an agent. That doesn’t count endorsements etc though too which are often multi-millions.
I do feel bad that he never got to fully show the world his talent, but there are a lot of people who never even got as much chance as he did. For a random example, there was an Indian guy named Sultan Khan who won the Indian chess championship undefeated and beat Jose Capablanca in a serious game (Capablanca said afterward that he was a genius) without even having practiced much in the international version of the game (where pawns can move forward twice on their initial move etc) but who was a servant to some Maharajah who took him back to India and he never got to actually develop his talent or learn the game properly.
wait - in some versions pawns cannot move two squares at first?!
Yeah this was my biggest takeaway from that as well, truly insane to me.
That was the older rule, took a while to spread the new one everywhere.
I meant to say their net money made. Gross money is the total before you deduct anything of course.
Heck yea!! Major props for our boy Greg Oden for going back to school and making something for himself!
Good for him
This guy Bucks
True but he looked like that 15 years ago. For some reason people who look super old when they’re still young barely age. Samuel L. Jackson looked like a 50 year old when he was in his 30s and still looks like he’s in his 50s now that he’s in his 70s lol.
Steve Martin has been 55 for 50 years too
Arn Anderson disease
I was born in 1978 and Leslie Nielsen barely aged a day in my lifetime until the time of his death.
If I recall correctly, when he was playing for the Blazers someone jokingly asked him what World War 2 was like.
This is freaking hilarious if true lol
There was a shot during the 2014 NBA Finals of Greg Oden on the bench behind LeBron James. And someone commented that Greg looked like “an older LeBron time-traveling and revisiting some of his lowest moments in life” and I laughed like the POS I am.
i remember that hahahaha
He looked like Lebrons dad when Oden was in college even though he was like 4 years younger than him
My buddies and I hooped with him back in high school and he looked like this at 16 too lol
Greg Olden?
He somehow looks younger now than he did when he was drafted in 2007 lol
He got that Arn Anderson syndrome, born looking like you were always in your 50s with at least two divorces.
I’m pretty sure he was born looking like he was mid 40s but will also still look mid 40s well into his 60s. He is ageless.
I remember reading a sports illustrated for kids (I think) article on him when he was still in high school and in there was this anecdote about some dude asking Oden if he was a Vietnam veteran lol
Shit I forgot he was younger than me. FML
On draft night he said his nickname in college was “Lebron James’ daddy.”
They always called him lebrons father.
He was kind to her, then went about his day. Sall good
How does this footage exist? Who’s filming it? Lol
I’ve seen that lady before, I think she was going around pranking people. Just so happened to run into Oden.
Yeah she would go around like gyms or beach gyms and talk smack to those dudes right?
her grandson has a snapchat (or whatever social media following it is) and he lives in Ohio. I’ve seen him downtown a few times when I have been at lunch with his family. not my cup of tea, but they generally seem nice in public
Is her grandson Johnny Hamcheck?
Ross Smith
There’s a video where a Youtube prankster is told to walk up to any random black person on the street and ask if they’re Asian. The black person happens to be Andrew Wiggins. He doesn’t know it and you won’t realize it unless you rewind the video and happen to recognize him.
Its that content creator “gangsta granny” with he grandson I think.
This is the grandma of some social media “influencer” who makes videos like this all the time. Sends his grandma up to people to say outlandish things for clicks.
I played football with her grandson. We was an IG “influencer” or “comedian” and he heavily relied on his grandma for content. That why she’s mic’d
The way he walks away, it’s like bill biggsby as Bruce banner at the end of every episode.
This clip needs the theme music from that show!
I feel so awful for him
Nah don’t - he was dealt a tough hand but has really started to figure things out.
Went back and got his degree from OSU, joined the staff as a GA, worked under Matta as a coach at butler, and now is the director of player development at a sports academy.
He’s really turned it around from being in a dark place
That’s good to know. Always felt bad for Oden bc he seems like a decent guy that had bad luck. That kind of career collapse would be too much for a lot of people to handle. Glad for Oden that he rose above it
It did nearly kill him, he suffered from alcoholism when he dropped out of the league
Damn that’s sad. Good for him for getting through it
Man, Blazer’s have had some serious what if players, Oden, Brandon Roy, Aryvdas (sp??) Sabonis, Bill Walton
Welcome to our life.
Brandon Roy😔 I’m a die hard Suns fan but fuck I loved Roy. One of my first favorite players with Nash, Stat, Lebron, Tmac, and Tracy.
Brandon Roy man 😭
I was sure he was going to be him
That rookie year was something special. He just had such a slick playing style.
“Portland Trailblazers: Where young players go to retire”®️
You can still feel bad for they guy who was robbed by injuries.
You can also not feel bad for the guy who punched his ex-girlfriend in the face.
Jesus christ why are so many pro athletes fuckin dickheads
Oden was dealing with a lot of personal issues after endless surgeries and career stops and was pretty deep into alcoholism at the time.
Not an excuse, just the context.
From interviews he began his alcoholism phase his second year in Portland and it got worse and worse until 2014. Alcohol is bad for recovery so I wonder if that affected his rehab? Or maybe he was just cooked regardless and the alcohol made it easier for him to accept? He basically said he needed that Benadryl, Tylenol, etc. in order to fall asleep every night.
I will never understand the premise of comments like these that are so popular on this site….”no, don’t try and empathize with another human being because he’s found his own successful path”
It’s so weird how people on here view things in such an absolutist type of way
I guess I should’ve phrased my comment better. Definitely empathize with them, the world needs more of that - just wanted to point out that he’s really turned things around and is doing much better in life
He also earned more than 20 million dollars playing basketball lol of course the human aspect isn’t something I’m trying to downplay, but it’s not like his injury destroyed his life. His kids should be set for life.
That’s enough to set in a high yield savings and coast. The interest alone would make you more annually than I make as a lawyer.
Half of that in a high interest account (~4%) gets you almost half a million in interest annually lol. Wealth is ABSURD
He was in the NBA and now has his bachelors and a masters. Compared to the average human he’s been immensely blessed
While that is true he did fall pretty deep into alcoholism and depression, got charged with battery for hitting a girlfriend, went through counseling and AA and came out on the other side with a degree, family, and career.
Wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for him after the NBA
Very true. The original comment made it seem horrible now which he’s not is why I felt compelled to comment,
Not everything is a comparison. Context is relevant and it’s easy to see he’s had a struggle. Nothing wrong with compassion
He’s currently doing quite well in life though. Feeling awful for how he’s doing now implies he’s currently living a very bad life which he isn’t. I appreciate the expression of sentiment but it’d be more appropriate to say “I feel bad for what he went through”.
Feels pedantic but sure
He also made 24 million from the NBA
I felt awful when he beat his girlfriend with his fists
Don’t forget he broke his girlfriends nose during an argument. I don’t feel too bad for him.
He still made set for life money.
Well, their knees are probably about the same age
The Todd Gurley experience
That’s the famous grandma
Yea this is staged as fuck, and at the expense of Greg Oden probably. Her little camera crew probably saw him milling about and saw their chance
I hate that fucking grandma
I was gonna say that looks like the fakest grandma I’ve ever seen, Simpsons type of old lady voice
She’s a real old lady 😆
Why is someone recording him with a mic?
As crazy as this sounds that old lady is a pretty big social media personality that lives in central Ohio. Gangster Granny. She has filmed some content on campus in the past and I believe they just happened to run into Greg while walking around. She actually just turned 100 years old earlier this month. What a weird time we live in.
Yep, I live in Columbus and have met them both in random places multiple times, both are very pleasant people, those who aren’t familiar with Columbus we have a locally famous hot dog joint called Dirty Frank’s which I worked at 6ish years ago and Greg would come in sometimes twice a week and pick up a togo order and was always the coolest dude
She’s a stunt granny
Nothing is real anymore, not even the non AI videos
Influencer
r/whyweretheyfilming
It was a “prank” video from that Fake Klay dude who got banned from the GSW arena.
the westbrook clip that someone just posted here reminded me of this
Oden/Roy/Aldridge was a championship core that was completely derailed by horrible injuries.
Honestly, if Aldridge stayed in Portland with Dame, they could have been something really special.
aldridge was automatic from mid and had great post moves, great touch.
Yep 100%
“Fuck out my face bitch” - Greg, probably
This “old lady” is an “influencer”.
Just wanted to say that I saw Greg Oden in Maui at a fancy resort this summer. I didn’t want to bother him but we incidentally were sitting close to one another at the beach. He was very nice and personable, especially with my kids that were running around.
Biggest what if
Him and Brandon Roy.
id argue Brandon Roy is the bigger what if. that man was NUTS
Brandon Roy was insane and is definitely his own tragedy, but Greg Oden was getting David Robinson/Ewing/Bill Russell comps before he played a minute in the NBA. Oden is up there with Len Bias as like the biggest what ifs of all time
That man and Mike Conley taking Ohio State to the championship game while he was shooting left-handed because of injury to his right wrist and still put up 25 pts 12 rebounds and 4 blocks was such a great view of what he was capable of even when he wasn’t healthy. If his body had held up I can only imagine what he could have done.
We did get to see more of Roy, tho. Oden never put together those kinds of stretches. IMO, if both are healthy, Roy ends up the better player / bigger career.
yeah poor wording on my end, that’s what I meant by the bigger what if. I think he would have ended up being better as well. could have been a true superstar
I think Walton may be a bigger what if in Portland alone. Most other guys in this category are “could have led a team to a championship” and he was “did so and was rolling the league the next season when he went down.”
Yeah, what if he didn’t beat his girlfriend?
He hasn’t aged a day in 20 years. Still looks 58.
I used to rule the world Teams fought to draft me first Now in the mornin’, I walk alone Sweep the courts I used to own I used to block those shots Feel the fear when I rose up to swat
I used to rule the world
Teams fought to draft me first
Now in the mornin’, I walk alone
Sweep the courts I used to own
I used to block those shots
Feel the fear when I rose up to swat
Why the fuck are we getting mic audio of a grandma approaching a broken man who wishes nothing but a different outcome than the one he was dealt?
Like who is the dickhead who told grandma to approach him and say “I can beat you” then film it?
I sat next to him on a flight from greece to LA. Nicest guy, he started the conversation because I had a little lakers bag I used to keep my travel stuff in for on the flight. He’s coaching college kids now. I think he’s ok, and the music is sad because I dont think of him that way, and the kids that came to talk to him all seemed to like him a lot.
Holy crap, that was a little depressing.
Somehow he looks younger here than when he played at OSU
Earned 24.3m, let’s call it 10 after taxes and agent fees… dude is set up for life.
And there just happens to be a camera and mics to capture this unscripted moment
Moment is not randomly captured, but Oden also did not stage it. He was randomly walking. Grandpa was filming her series of pranks, where she walks to strangers and talk smack.
Literally wearing a basketball shirt
Somewhat unrelated I got him to record a cameo for my friend who i play basketball with who got injured and it was awesome and a bargain
Why are the comments so negative here man? Cause it’s scripted because of the camera?
“Where’s the beef?!?!”
Not really related to the post but I once talked to Greg Oden at a dispensary and we talked about using it for chronic pain, bro has excellent taste in weed. The stuff he recommended was gas
That’s actually Caitlin Clark Uncle Drewing it.
Oden is the best. Cool ass dude. Wish we could turn off injuries
They got the same knees
I was trying to remember what player was in this clip as I read the Westbrook post. Thanks for posting.
She’d meet the 65 game minimum
Miami HEAT legend
Don’t know him, what’s his story?
Edit: I started following in 24 cut me some slack
Monster in college, drafted #1 over Durant, knees said no
That really sucks
Generational big man prospect. Drafted #1 overall by the Blazers in 07. Career never got off the ground due to knee microfracture injuries
Dude was Shaq 2.0 at OSU. Next to Zion, the most dominant college player I’ve ever seen.
Sigh
How are people so gullible????? They just happened to be filing here with a perfect microphone?
Greg Oden was who LeBron was supposed to look like when he got older. But Oden sure looks younger and more pleasant here.
That look of “yeah you could actually 😔”
he was so hyped him and kd, those damn injuries
Crazy his teammate at OSU Mike Connelly is still in the league
Isn’t she that famous granny?
I do kind of feel for everyone around 6’6” or taller that CONTINUALLY get asked “do you play basketball?”. I think fatigue from that question in life was the source of his expression at the end. Really, really good of him to play nice with the lady who was just doing the same. Wholesome moment. Count me as an Oden fan now.
This is a famous old lady where her grandson uses her for clicks and views as a “cute grandma” gag. And this is honestly kinda shitty.
That’s Greg Oden at 14 btw.
That’s not just any old lady. That looks like that granny lady from the comedy videos
I remember right before Odens rookie year seeing a clip of Shaq onstage at the ESPYs after (ig) winning some award and saying ‘Greg Oden, I’ll see u real soon brother!’ w a wink and big old grin. They cut to Oden in the crowd and he was laughing too but also had an oh sh*t look on his face. Never forgot that 😅
She’s probably right I bet her knees are in better shape!
Her second question was, “Didn’t we go to high school together?”
I ran into him in Hawaii once
Being that she’s mic’d up I assume this is a “prank” or something like that
He’s a chameleon
Answer: no
He must get that all the fucking time. I know because I ask people over 6’6” that all the time
Sucks for him, his body just gave out
The evil cackle. Granny up to no good
I feel for Portland as they have the 3 of the biggest busts in NBA draft history, if you consider the other prospects (Dr.J, McAdoo, MJ, KD) of those years they could have taken it just adds salt to the wound.
I can’t stand this granny. She pulled some shit at the World Cup trying to meet Messi and how she was his oldest fan. It’s all publicity stunts.
He like she probably could beat me at basketball
Love seeing the flirting between seniors
She probably could 😓
Oden/Roy/LMA is my underrated what if , when all 3 played , Portland looked absolutely amazing
The trio had a record of 50-24 when playing
Is that the Granny who goes around challenging bodybuilders & wrestlers? She cracks me up.
r/watchpeopledieinside
She’s not lying
One of the biggest “what ifs”
Is a camera crew stalking Oden or is he in on the deal?
The feels
Man….his face had so much sadness as he kept walking…
Biggest what if in the NBA. He is a local legend here.
That pain in his eyes as he is walking away
Its cause he broke his foot and his knee walking by her
Now that I think about it. How did they get that audio and capture that moment of an old lady asking some tall guy she doesn’t know wearing a basketball t shirt whether he played basketball
Good thing a camera was there to record this. He doesnt even seem know the camera is there. And good think the woman has a microphone. Lotta luck went into getting this shot.
I beleive her
cringe ass edit
Back in lik 2011 I slept with a young lady in East TN. I asked her if I was the biggest she’d ever had and she was like “NOT EVEN CLOSE I slept with this guy at Ohio State, he played basketball. Greg osmond or something?” At first I was a bit DEVASTATED by the tone of her “not even close” but then I thought about it, Googled Greg Oden, showed her a picture and she was like “YEAH THAT’S HIM!” and I didn’t feel quite as inadequate. Best believe it was the last time I ever hit a woman with a “am I the biggest you’ve ever had” post sex. Lesson learned.
He has a giant penis.
Yah she probably could