Greg Oden a New Kind of Athlete

Mike Conley Senior, the father of Greg Oden’s friend and teammate, Mike Conley Jr. and an athlete in his own right- winning Olympic gold in the triple jump, had this to say about Greg Oden in the days before he was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers.

"He's Shaq but shoots free throws," Conley said. "He has close to a 40-inch vertical jump. You've never seen anyone like him. You can't label him like Dwight Howard or like Shaq. Both of them are great, but he's neither one. He's a new kind of athlete."

Less Motorcycle Accidents in Buffalo

It’s great that there are now way fewer motorcycle accidents in Buffalo, NY. That took a long time to change. For ages the opposite was true. There were just more and more of these accidents. But this year has seen way less.

This is good news for everyone. Greg Oden was born in Buffalo, NY. No one wants to think about the place where they were born being a danger-zone.
The bad news though is that it’s thought that the reason for this reduction in accidents is because bikers are watching their budgets as the economy is going bad. People like Greg Oden wouldn’t be happy about this. A bad economy is bad news for everyone. But for bikers or biker family members, it’s got to be good news that there have been over 500 less deaths than there were last year.

Oden Named Best Defensive Player for Trail Blazers

As the basketball season winds down for the NBA and the playoffs loom on the horizon, the Portland Trail Blazers have recognized their best players for the 2009-2010 season. The winners of the All Blazers Awards were announced as of the beginning of April.

The Most Valuable Player Award was given to Brandon Roy, who’s excellent playing this year helped lead the Trail Blazers to a spot in the NBA playoffs.

The Best Defensive Player of the Year was awarded to Greg Oden. Oden is the best shot blocker in the league and among the best of the great rebounders. He was leading in several defensive categories such as blocks per game; best defensive rating; best rebound percent; best block percent in PER stats.

The Rookie of the Year was given to Jeff Pendergraph who played a few times as a starter and posted some quite admirable numbers, such as 8 points, 14 rebounds, 3 blocks and more.

Oregeon Mentors with Greg Oden

Oregon Mentors is a powerful program in Oregon that Greg Oden helps to support. Their mission is to offer positive life opportunities to all Oregonians by connecting kids with caring mentors and role models. They have isolated more than 100,000 children in Oregon who could benefit from a mentor at this time.

By the end of 2010, their goal is to have another 20,000 mentors available to children in need.