All Greg Oden knew, all he cared about, was basketball.



Every bit of his self-image, his sense of self-worth, was tied into his ability to do the things he did at such a high level, first at Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, where he and Mike Conley won three state titles, and then at Ohio State, where the same pair took the Buckeyes to the national title game in 2007 before losing to Florida.



And then it was all taken away, courtesy of his balky knees and the worst kind of bad luck.



After entering the NBA in 2007 as the No. 1 overall pick of the Trail Blazers, his arrival hailed as the second coming of Bill Russell or Shaquille O’Neal, knee surgery after knee surgery limited him to just 114 games in his truncated 3-year career.



Through absolutely no fault of his own, Oden was cast as an epic draft bust, a Sam Bowie (injury-related), an Anthony Bennett, a Michael Olowokandi.



And it cut deep, really deep.



Without...