Brandon Roy on How Dominant Greg Oden Was // Michael Porter Jr
00:00:00.000 | One time we talked about, I want to bring this up, Greg Oden, because I've seen a video
00:00:06.320 | on Instagram and it was just a video of him, I don't know if you've seen it, him walking
00:00:09.520 | around and like a lady, an old lady just asked him, "Did you used to play basketball?"
00:00:13.920 | And it was like, he said, "I used to," and he was just like, you could just see how sad
00:00:18.120 | he was.
00:00:19.120 | Yeah, I seen that.
00:00:20.120 | But me and you have talked about Greg Oden and how good and dominant he actually was,
00:00:24.560 | like even in the practices with you, he was obviously one of the best players, so talk
00:00:28.000 | about that dude for a little bit.
00:00:29.000 | Yeah, man, Greg, no, I'm glad you even asked me about him, like you said, I always speak
00:00:33.840 | about him, but never with much of an audience.
00:00:37.840 | So that's cool of you to even think about him, but you were a reason why I did think
00:00:42.840 | of him, because when I got to the Blazers, Greg came in a year after I did, and man,
00:00:50.040 | I remember I had just won rickety year, and I think it was Kevin Pitcher was like, "Man,
00:00:57.600 | you want to do the draft lottery?"
00:00:59.520 | And I was like, "No," because he knows I don't like to fly and travel, especially
00:01:04.600 | my off season.
00:01:05.600 | He's like, "Nah, I ain't asking this time.
00:01:06.600 | You got to do it.
00:01:07.600 | Come on, B. You got to do our good luck charm."
00:01:09.320 | And I'm like, "Man, all right, but I'm going to fly there, and I'm going to fly
00:01:13.000 | right back."
00:01:14.000 | He's like, "All right, done."
00:01:15.000 | So I ended up going out there.
00:01:16.160 | And we knew who it was.
00:01:17.160 | It was like, if you're number one or two, you're going to take Durant or Oden.
00:01:22.600 | But we were going to be like seven, so I was thinking like, "All right, whatever."
00:01:26.480 | Man, I get there, and we ended up getting the number one pick.
00:01:30.720 | And I was like, "Oh, man, I am the good luck charm."
00:01:33.040 | So I joke around, and to this day, I still got the jersey that they gave that day where
00:01:37.800 | Blazers number one pick.
00:01:38.800 | I don't know if they know that, but I kept that.
00:01:42.520 | I was going through some stuff the other day, and I had seen it.
00:01:45.120 | But we get the number one pick, and people are asking all these questions.
00:01:49.800 | Before I went on, our media person was like, "Don't tell anybody who we're picking
00:01:53.160 | or who we're leaning."
00:01:54.160 | So I give the whole, what do you call it, public answer or whatever they call it.
00:02:01.320 | So I ended up getting back to Portland, and I'm thinking like, "Well, who are we going
00:02:04.160 | to take?"
00:02:05.160 | Because now everybody's texting.
00:02:06.160 | It ain't social media.
00:02:07.160 | Everybody's like, "Well, who are you guys going to take, Kevin Durant or Greg Oden?"
00:02:10.840 | And everything that I'm going to say about Greg Oden is not taking anything away from
00:02:15.680 | Kevin Durant.
00:02:16.680 | Kevin Durant is, again, he's on that level of guys where my favorites are Jordan, Kobe,
00:02:23.440 | Kevin Durant.
00:02:24.680 | He's in that conversation.
00:02:27.040 | But Greg Oden, man, when I seen him, and you've got to remember, this is a different NBA now.
00:02:32.280 | You still post up, you still play with the big.
00:02:35.400 | So long story short, we end up drafting Greg, and we're having these workouts, and we're
00:02:43.360 | doing football stuff, and we're out in the field.
00:02:46.880 | Man, we was doing 100 yard down and backs, and Greg and Marcus are winning, and these
00:02:51.960 | dudes are the tallest players on the team.
00:02:54.000 | He could run.
00:02:55.000 | He could run.
00:02:56.000 | And then when we got in the open gym, whoever's team Greg was on was going to win, because
00:03:02.800 | you know how it is.
00:03:03.800 | It's like, man, we're all good, but it comes down to those couple plays here and there,
00:03:10.000 | and Greg can defend better than just about anybody, and then he can get offensive rebounds.
00:03:15.640 | He kept every ball alive.
00:03:17.080 | So I was like, "Man," and I remember I called my dad, and he was like, "How good is he?"
00:03:21.460 | I was like, "We could win a championship."
00:03:24.680 | For the first time in my life, playing with him, I was like, "We could win a championship.
00:03:30.320 | He was that good."
00:03:31.320 | And I'm not saying we could win that year, but having him on the team, we had everything
00:03:36.920 | we needed to win a championship, because he filled a lot of those holes.
00:03:41.500 | And I was like, "Man, he was that good."
00:03:44.120 | Once he got comfortable in games, I was telling Nate, I'm like, "I don't know.
00:03:49.120 | I'm kind of bored, because Greg does so much."
00:03:51.600 | Even defensively, I'm guarding dudes, and our help defense don't have to really help,
00:03:57.240 | because he helps everything.
00:03:58.240 | So I started learning.
00:03:59.240 | I'm like, "Okay, so I'm going to leak out."
00:04:00.240 | I started getting more transition stuff, because I'm like, "Greg's going to get the board."
00:04:05.640 | And offensively, he gets tips.
00:04:07.320 | He just tips.
00:04:08.320 | It doesn't matter.
00:04:09.320 | He's pushing dudes, just tipping the ball, keeping plays alive.
00:04:11.560 | We got second chance points, and I was like, "Man, he made the game so damn easy."
00:04:16.460 | And the markers have to figure out how to play with them, because even when you get
00:04:20.520 | post touches, they're doubling, so we're more open, and we're not used to being open.
00:04:24.400 | We're used to having to carry the load to win games, and now we're winning games more
00:04:29.120 | comfortably.
00:04:30.120 | So, no, he was a special player, and I hate when people try to say stuff, "A bust."
00:04:38.880 | He was injured, but if he was never injured, there's no way in hell he was a bust.
00:04:44.400 | He had a hall of fame talent.
00:04:46.320 | That kid was good.
00:04:47.320 | He could shoot free throws with his left hand.
00:04:49.080 | He shoot 'em with his right.
00:04:50.600 | He had everything, and I just wish the world would have got a chance to see that.
00:04:55.320 | He was that good.
00:04:56.360 | He was that good.
00:04:57.360 | He was an even better person.
00:04:58.360 | He'd have loved to be his teammate.
00:05:00.440 | Cool as a fan, man.
00:05:01.440 | Best dude.
00:05:02.440 | I'm telling you, man.
00:05:03.440 | We were in Vegas.
00:05:04.440 | I went to Summer League, and like I said, I had just won Rookie of the Year.
00:05:07.800 | I played really well, and man, we were all down there playing the little dollar slots
00:05:11.760 | clowning around.
00:05:13.800 | People were coming up to us.
00:05:14.800 | Man, Greg came down to the lobby.
00:05:16.480 | Man, it was mayhem.
00:05:18.000 | I was like, "We got the league."
00:05:20.840 | Security was like, "We're just gonna take you guys back to your rooms," 'cause people
00:05:24.120 | just went that crazy.
00:05:25.120 | I was like, "Damn, he's that big."
00:05:28.560 | It was real special to see Greg again.
00:05:31.600 | Kevin Durant has blossomed to ... He's one of the best players to ever play the game,
00:05:36.840 | and Greg Olton was right there with him.
00:05:38.800 | Again, like I said, even then it was no who's better.
00:05:43.360 | They're both gonna be great players.
00:05:45.520 | It's just a matter of who you're gonna take, and that's what made it like, "Man, I just
00:05:51.200 | hate that the world couldn't see him at that Kevin Durant level," 'cause they would probably
00:05:56.360 | still be rivaling each other, you know what I mean, going at it, 'cause he could protect
00:06:00.080 | that basket, Kevin Durant could stretch the court, so I thought they had that kind of