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 an old lady just asking him, "Did you used to play basketball?"
00:00:14.200 | 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 | But me and you have talked about Greg Oden and how good and dominant he actually was.
00:00:24.880 | Even in the practices with you, he was obviously one of the best players, so talk about that
00:00:28.240 | dude for a little bit.
00:00:29.240 | Yeah, man, Greg, I'm glad you even asked me about him.
00:00:32.280 | Like you said, I always speak about him, but never with much of an audience.
00:00:37.880 | 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 Rookie of the Year, and I think it was Kevin Pitcher was like,
00:00:57.280 | "Man, you want to do the draft lottery?"
00:00:59.480 | And I was like, "No," because he knows I don't like to fly and travel, especially
00:01:04.560 | my off-season.
00:01:05.560 | He's like, "Nah, I ain't asking this time.
00:01:06.560 | You got to do it.
00:01:07.560 | Come on, B. You got to do our good luck charm."
00:01:09.160 | I'm like, "Man, all right, but I'm going to fly there, and I'm going to fly right
00:01:13.440 | back."
00:01:14.440 | He's like, "All right, done."
00:01:15.440 | So I ended up going out there.
00:01:16.440 | And we knew who it was.
00:01:17.440 | It was like, if you're number one or two, you're going to take Durant or Oden.
00:01:22.540 | But we were going to be like seven, so I was thinking like, "All right, whatever."
00:01:26.360 | 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.
00:01:34.040 | And to this day, I still got the jersey that they gave that day where Blazers number one
00:01:38.680 | pick.
00:01:39.680 | 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.
00:01:45.080 | But we get the number one pick, and people are asking all these questions.
00:01:49.560 | 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, "Who are we going to
00:02:04.220 | take?"
00:02:05.220 | Because now everybody's texting.
00:02:06.220 | It ain't social media.
00:02:07.220 | 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
00:02:15.640 | Kevin Durant.
00:02:16.640 | 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 got to remember, this is a different NBA now.
00:02:32.400 | You still post up.
00:02:33.680 | 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 on the field.
00:02:46.720 | Man, we was doing 100 yard down and backs, and Greg and Marcus are like, "They're winning,
00:02:51.720 | and these dudes are the tallest players on the team.
00:02:54.040 | He could run.
00:02:55.040 | He could run."
00:02:56.040 | And then, when we got in the open gym, whoever's team Greg was on was going to win, because
00:03:02.920 | you know how it is.
00:03:03.920 | Man, we're all good, but it comes down to those couple plays here and there, and Greg
00:03:10.440 | can defend better than just about anybody, and then he can get offensive rebounds.
00:03:15.600 | 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?"
00:03:21.720 | 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."
00:03:31.600 | 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.
00:03:49.080 | I'm kind of bored, because Greg does so much."
00:03:51.620 | Even defensively, I'm guarding dudes, and our help defense don't have to really help,
00:03:57.120 | because he helps everything.
00:03:58.120 | So I started learning.
00:03:59.120 | I'm like, "Okay, so I'm going to leak out."
00:04:00.120 | I started getting more transition stuff, because I'm like, "Greg's going to get the board."
00:04:05.680 | 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.
00:04:11.600 | We've got second chance points, and I was like, "Man, he made the game so damn easy."
00:04:16.440 | And Lamarcus had to figure out how to play with them, because even when he gets post-touches,
00:04:20.840 | man, they're doubling, so we're more open, and we're not used to being open.
00:04:24.360 | We're used to having to carry the load to win games, and now we're winning games more
00:04:28.920 | comfortably.
00:04:29.920 | So, no, he was a special player, and I hate when people try to say stuff's a bust.
00:04:38.840 | He was injured, but if he was never injured, there's no way in hell he was a bust.
00:04:44.360 | He had a hall of fame talent.
00:04:46.280 | That kid was good.
00:04:47.280 | He could shoot free throws with his left hand.
00:04:49.040 | 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.
00:04:55.300 | He was that good.
00:04:56.300 | He was that good.
00:04:57.300 | He was an even better person, man.
00:04:58.300 | He'd have loved to be his teammate.
00:04:59.300 | Cool as a fan, man.
00:05:00.300 | Best dude.
00:05:01.300 | I'm telling you, man.
00:05:02.300 | We were in Vegas.
00:05:03.300 | I went to Summer League, and like I said, I had just won Rick 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.
00:05:12.760 | People were coming up to us, and Greg came down to the lobby, man, it was mayhem.
00:05:18.120 | I was like, "We got to leave."
00:05:20.720 | Security was like, "We're just going to take you guys back to your rooms," because 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.
00:05:31.640 | Kevin Durant has blossomed to ... He's one of the best players to ever play the game,
00:05:36.800 | and Greg Odom was right there with him.
00:05:38.680 | Again, like I said, even then, it was no who's better, it was just they're both going to
00:05:43.920 | be great players.
00:05:45.520 | It's just a matter of who you're going to take, and that's what made it like, man, I
00:05:51.000 | just hate that the world couldn't see him at that Kevin Durant level, because they would
00:05:56.120 | probably still be rivaling each other, you know what I mean, going at it, because he
00:05:59.480 | could protect that basket, Kevin Durant could stretch the court, so I thought they had that
00:06:04.140 | kind of that kind of bot.