Boys Basketball Coordinator
Tonight, a new batch of millionaires will be made.
As the NBA draft is held in New Yorkâ??s Madison Square Garden, the state of Indiana will have a significant impact as three young men who played high school basketball in our state are expected to go in the first round: Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Jr., and Josh McRoberts.
As the so-called â??expertsâ? â??? and who knows how many bloggers, vloggers, and web geeks â??? try to pinpoint to whom and with which pick Conley and McRoberts will be selected, Oden is going where heâ??s already been for at least three years: the top of the basketball world.
Tonight, finally, we get to see the scenario that has been talked about for now three years unfold.
â??Greg Oden would have been the first overall pick in the NBA Draft after his junior year of high school,â? people said.
â??Greg Oden can jump straight from high school to the No. 1 pick in the NBA,â? still more said before the NBA instituted its rule to prevent such a move.
â??Greg is one-and-done at Ohio State and will be the No. 1 pick in the draft,â? people surmised.
All along, I guessed he would go to college for two years before leaving for the fast-paced, big money NBA lifestyle. Turns out I was wrong.
Iâ??ll go on record as saying no person â??? not Jordan, not Kobe, not LeBron, no one â??? deserves hundreds of millions of dollars for putting a round, orange ball through a hoop (and Greg wonâ??t get that much on his first contract). But if ever anyone did deserve that much, it would be Oden.
Like most prep superstars, Oden always managed to say the right things â??? he needed to get better at his game, he wanted to experience college life, and he had decided he wanted to major in accounting. (I have to applaud that. But seriously, Greg, it takes five years to get your accounting degree â??? there was no way you were going to turn down the NBA for five years!)
Even more impressive than the words, however, were his actions and behavior. Never once did we hear a story of Oden getting in trouble. Despite getting bear-hugged, mugged, and practically tackled by defenders, Oden rarely fought back maliciously and seemed to keep quiet when others would talk trash. Instead, he opted to destroy his opponents with points and rebounds, allowing the most painful of blocked shots to do his talking for him.
With statistics and credentials that will give the Portland Trailblazersâ?? media relations department plenty to work with, Oden is likely to be remembered for being the most dominant player that the state most thickly lathered in basketball tradition has ever seen.
Iâ??m sure that rather than remembering him as Mr. Basketball, a McDonaldâ??s All-American, or for any of his numerous individual achievements, Greg wants to be remembered as a winner. And the numbers certainly back him up on that.
Lawrence North lost just seven games during the high school careers of Oden and Conley.
In the duoâ??s eighth-grade year, LN had finished 11-11. The Wildcats were never defeated by more than 10 points in the subsequent four years.
Finishing the dynamic duoâ??s senior season with an undefeated state championship, Lawrence North became just the third Indiana high school team to win back-to-back-to-back state championships. And the â??Cats would have done it in the old non-class format, too).
Oden and Conley finished their high school careers as winners of 45 straight games, a string that tied Crispus Attucksâ?? state record, a stretch that reached 50 games before a post-Oden and Conley loss for LN. And as rookies at Ohio State on a freshmen-dominated team, the Buckeyes went 35-4 with a national championship game appearance.
I remember the first time I ever saw Oden play: Dec. 20, 2002. He was a young 7-footer playing against Indianapolis Arlington. I was then working at the ESPN Radio affiliate in Indianapolis covering mostly high school sports and wanted to get a look at this supposed phenom in the making. He certainly didnâ??t disappoint, owning the paint defensively yet appearing a bit timid on the offensive end.
In his sophomore season, I watched LN narrowly defeat Columbia City in the Hall of Fame Classic in New Castle, 56-55 in double-overtime, thinking that Oden & Co. might be beatable. While they did lose their next game and a second one before the state tournament, the Wildcats got it together and ran to a state championship, destroying that same Columbia City team, 50-29.
By halftime of that game, I was confident LN would win three state championships, a feat accomplished only by the legendary Franklin and Marion teams.
During his junior year, I watched Oden take on Tyler Hansborough and his Poplar Bluffs (Mo.) team in a nationally televised game at Hinkle Fieldhouse while sitting next to longtime shoe man Sonny Vaccaro. The man who hooked up Michael Jordan with Nike and signed Kobe Bryant and dozens of other high-profile players to shoe contracts, Vaccaro told me that we were watching one of the next greats.
The state championship game that year against Muncie Central was closer (63-52), but the big man managed to take care of things with 29 points, nine rebounds, and six blocks.
In the week following, Oden was the biggest draw at the McDonaldâ??s All-American Game in South Bend â??? even though he was a spectator. I watched as a line of mostly children snaked its way down an aisle as they waited for Odenâ??s autograph while he sat in the stands.
By their senior season, Oden, Conley, and the Wildcats were nationally followed. At times, it felt as if they were playing for a national championship, not a state title. With another ESPN game â??? this one a lopsided win against Eric Gordon and North Central (Indianapolis) â??? the Wildcats rolled to a perfect year, with their closest games being a pair of 10-point wins.
After being named Indianaâ??s Mr. Basketball, Oden told me in a radio interview that he felt Conley should have won the award. It was the same thing he had said time and time again, always deflecting praise away from himself and upon his teammate.
In the weeks following, Oden, hampered by a wrist injury, was invited to play in the first-ever Hoosiers Reunion game at the gym where the classic movie Hoosiers was filmed in Knightstown. Despite being unable to play, Oden was there all day long â??? including taking the microphone during introductions to thank fans for coming despite his injury.
Most other big-name players in that position would have skipped the event entirely.
You hear the phrase â??once-in-a-lifetime playerâ? and think of the all-time greats. But in an era of hype, sensationalism, and overkill by the media, know that Oden fits that description.
His basketball talent speaks volumes about what kind of professional player Oden will be. His modesty, humbleness, generosity with his time, and character all back it up. There couldnâ??t be a more deserving millionaire-in-the-making.
While I canâ??t lay claim to being a good friend of Odenâ??s, I know after interviewing him many times, talking to him after games, and watching him play probably around 30 games in high school that heâ??s going to thrive in the NBA.
Heâ??s got no choice. Heâ??s a winner.
I close â??? selfishly â??? with the words I spoke on HoosierAuthority.comâ??s webcast of the 2006 Class 4A state championship game, after Lawrence Northâ??s 24-point win over Muncie Central and Odenâ??s selection as the Arthur L. Trester Mental Attitude Award winner:
â??What we were able to witness here this evening, weâ??ve been stating it as history, but itâ??s been so much more than that. A young man by the name of Greg Oden finishes his high school career with 26 points and 11 rebounds. He, Mike Conley, and four other seniors for Lawrence North retire from their high school careers one of, if not the, greatest high school boys basketball team this state has ever seen. They join Franklin and Marion as the only programs to win three straight state championships; they also tie Crispus Attucks as winners of 45 consecutive high school basketball games, the Attucks teams of â??54-55 and 55-56.
â??Oden will put his name in the record books, joining the likes of a guy named Oscar, some guy named Larry from French Lick, Big George, Damon, Rick Mount â?¦ the list goes on and on. But there is no doubt about it, folks â??? it has been an honor and a privilege to have witnessed Mike Conley and the big guy, Greg Oden, over the last four years at Lawrence North High School. It is an absolute, extreme pleasure. I thank them and wish them nothing but the best, and also hope that the rest of the folks from this great Hoosier state will also wish them the best of luck at Ohio State University as well as wherever else their basketball and professional careers may take them.â?
The last six seasons of basketball in Central Indiana have been unforgettable and have provided some of us with memories weâ??ll never forget. Still not 25 years old myself, I know I have been around the most dominant basketball player I will ever witness in Indiana high school basketball.
Best of luck to Greg, Mike, McRoberts, and the rest of the Indiana players who will make their way to the pros in the next couple of years.
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