His 7-foot body had crumpled to the bathroom floor again, his head hanging over the toilet, the smell of alcohol oozing from his pores.

Greg Oden had been drinking all day, morning until night, as he did every day. He would take his final sip and fall into a dark oblivion every night. He would wake up and go straight for a bottle to get through the next day. Every time he ate, he would throw up.

The life of the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NBA draft had been whittled down to nothing more than a shell of an existence. Oden huddled in a dark house nearly 10 years after that triumphant moment, isolated, with alcohol-induced bulimia.

Oden, then 28, would stare at the television screen, watching clips of the player drafted No. 2 behind him, Kevin Durant, now a league superstar. The tears would flow.

He would watch the old NBA YouTube clips of himself, knowing he shouldn't. He would sob.

Oden, who was plagued with injuries throughout his seven years in the league before knee ailments ended his NBA career, still heard the words echo: "Greg Oden is the biggest bust in the NBA."

Failure pulsed through his body. He had so much sadness. So much disappointment.

During those dark, hollow days he believed there was no way to survive other than to make all the failure and regret disappear.

"You just keep on numbing yourself with alcohol," said Oden, now 31, "trying not to think about it."

Setting an example

Inside the Union of Ohio State University, a bustling place where students drink lattes and click away on laptops, Oden talked this week about those dark days. He will never forget them.

As he spoke, a student approached to ask if Oden would pose for a photo with him. Oden's still got it. People still want a piece of him.

Right now, Oden said, he is in an amazing place in life, far from the desolate throes of alcoholism. He and his wife, Sabrina, have a two-year-old daughter, Londyn.

Oden has replaced nights out with nights in, chasing around a toddler who told him the other evening that if he didn't pick her up he would "get his ass spanked."

"I still don't know where she got that," Oden said laughing. "She is a sponge."

Londyn the sponge is why Oden is at Ohio State, the college he played basketball for his freshman year in 2006.

Oden will walk across the stage at Ohio State on May 5 to get his diploma, a degree in sport industry, hoping for a career as a coach, wearing a gown he still needs to be sized for. If it's too short, he doesn't care.

The diploma is what's important. It's a gift to his daughter.

"It's simple as this. How can I tell her go to school and get an education if I did not get one?" he said. "I want to be that example."

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Oden returned to Ohio State as a sophomore in fall 2016 to get a degree — after he tired of the liquor and the bathroom floor and moping inside a house.

"It was really just a whole bunch of loss for me," he said. And then the phone rang.

Then-Ohio State coach Thad Matta knew what Oden was going through.

"That's when he gave a branch. He's like, 'Just come here to the gym, watch practice, be around guys,'" Oden said. "And that really helped me out to give me some direction, to give me some meaning."

For the past three years, Oden has been a student coach for the Buckeyes. It was a strange feeling, at first, to be back at this college 10 years later. Oden remembered the feeling of invincibility in 2006 as he embarked on an Ohio State basketball career.

He had just led his Lawrence North High School team to three consecutive state championships. He had been named IndyStar Mr. Basketball and had been showered with national accolades. Like: Greg Oden is the next Bill Russell.

Some of Oden's best times came during that freshman year at Ohio State. In an NCAA Sweet Sixteen game, he blocked Tennessee's potential game-winning shot in the final seconds. He was the hero as Ohio State won 85-84.

He remained the hero as he led the Buckeyes past Memphis and Georgetown and on to the national championship game. There, Oden scored 25 points, had 12 rebounds and four blocks against Florida.

Ohio State lost 84-75, but the NBA scouts had seen enough. Professional basketball was ready for this 7-0 phenom.

At the end of the season, Matta declared that Oden "was going to be one of the greatest to ever play in the NBA."

'That is my biggest regret'

Drinking was a way of life for Oden long before he hit bottom in February of 2016, on the bathroom floor.

But he had once gone six months months sober, in 2014, to "get perspective" after what he calls his "biggest regret" in life.

As a free agent in August 2014, Oden said, he felt lost. He had known nothing but basketball his entire life. He fell in love with the sport in fourth grade, by fifth grade was 5-10 and by sixth grade was 6-6. There was no turning back.

But without basketball that summer night and after too much to drink, Oden lashed out at an ex-girlfriend.

Inside his mother's Lawrence home, police said, Oden attacked his former girlfriend. Oden was accused of punching Christina Green in the face three times and fracturing a bone in her nose. Oden's mother, awakened by the commotion, had to pull Oden off Green to bring the incident to an end, court documents stated.

When investigators initially questioned Oden, police said he was "calm, apologetic and cooperative."

"I was wrong, and I know what has to happen," Oden told police, according to a Lawrence Police Department report.

Oden was arrested and charged with one count of battery resulting in serious bodily injury, a Level 5 felony, as well as misdemeanor charges of domestic battery and battery resulting in bodily injury. Oden was fined $200 and ordered to complete 26 weeks of domestic violence counseling, alcoholics anonymous classes and 909 days of probation, as part of a plea agreement, according to court documents. A no-contact order was also put into place.

"My biggest regret, mine would be my issue with the law a few years back, just that whole entire situation," Oden said this week. "I wish that had never happened."

Struggling for greatness

Oden's low was a long fall from his high.

In 2007, amid the flashing bulbs of cameras and huge expectations, Oden signed a four-year, $22-million contract with Portland as the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.

He had to sit out his first season because of micro-fracture surgery on his right knee. A foot injury delayed the start of what became his rookie season in 2008-09, but he played 61 games for Portland. Glimpses of his potential came in a five-game stretch that January, when he averaged 16.4 points, 11.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks.

But Oden was not able to maintain that level of performance, and a collision with Corey Maggette in February 2009 caused another knee injury.

Oden managed just 21 games in 2009-10 — including another five-game stretch in which he averaged 17.4 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks — before a patella injury caused him to miss the rest of the season. He had another microfracture surgery on his knee the following November, suffered a setback in rehabilitation and re-signed with Portland for $1.5 million. But he couldn't get back on the court.

There were two more knee surgeries — causing him to miss three full seasons — before he played 23 games with Miami in 2013-14. Oden's NBA career was over after 105 games. He averaged 8.0 points and 6.2 rebounds.

Still, the Jiangsu Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association wanted Oden. On Aug. 26, 2015, Oden signed a one-year, $1.2 million contract. That December, he recorded a season-high 22 points and 14 rebounds.

When he left the Dragons in February of 2016 after 25 games, he had averaged 13.0 points, 12.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.

And that is when it hit him. Basketball was really over.

"By the time I got back I probably drank every day," Oden said. "(To get over) those feelings about how it was... that it was over, you know? I'm not coming back. I'm not playing any more."

He never imagined he would be a worn out former NBA player at 28.

"I never thought this was going to be over," he said. "I thought I was going to keep on playing. You never really look at the end while you're playing."

But then, the end was there.

The comeback

Audience members were crying and laughing this week as Oden told his story of life after sports on a panel at Ohio State called "When Sports End."

How did Oden ultimately make up his mind to climb out of that hole, asked Steve Graef, a sports psychologist at Ohio State.

"Just to see the time passing by," Oden said. And then one day, "I'm watching KD just ball out and I'm like, 'Dude, I still feel like I can do something."

Basketball was a gift that had been given to him. Maybe he couldn't play, Oden thought, but he could pass on the gift in other ways.

"Just going back to the gym, getting back around basketball, seeing the kids come in and realizing this is a game that I love," Oden said. "I can't be out here drinking every day or show up around them with alcohol on my breath or it coming out of my pores. So, I had to start getting better."

He also had to get to know himself, beyond the 7-0 basketball player.

"I need to realize who I am and what I like outside of the sport," he said, "because once that's gone, that's most of your life."

It's weird, though, Oden said. Some days about 5 p.m., he will get butterflies in his stomach. Most of his NBA games were played at 7 p.m. and he'd be arriving at the arena at 5 p.m., nervous.

Basketball is still so deep inside of him.

After graduating in May, Oden wants the game to still be part of him. His goal is to land a coaching job, at what level he doesn't know. He just wants to be teaching players on the court.

"I enjoy helping kids and my gift was basketball," he said. "I think if I can teach the game to somebody who wants to use the game to see so much more of life. I mean, the game of basketball has opened up my eyes and my family and my life to so many different things. I just want to be able to give that opportunity to another kid."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via e-mail: dbenbow@indystar.com.