Greg Oden’s Doctor Told Him To Quit Professional Basketball


In a conference call on Saturday, Greg Oden said his doctor from his 2012 micro-fracture surgery told him to be a “regular person” and to quit professional basketball. Now the newest member of the Miami Heat, Oden said that watching NBA TV motivated him to get back. From the Sun Sentinel: “He could have walked away. His surgeon told him as much. But the game drew him back, and then the Miami Heat reeled in Greg Oden. In his first expansive comments since signing this past week, Oden spoke Saturday of a passion for basketball that would not allow him to walk away even after three major knee surgeries, the most recent in February 2012. ‘After that surgery in 2012, my last surgery, the doctor said, ‘Just be a regular person, go live life. Be a regular person. You would be perfectly fine walking out of this place and not have to worry about any rehab or anything,” Oden related during a news conference and conference call at St. Vincent Sports Performance in Indianapolis, where he endured the most grueling portions of his rehab work. ‘And I did, and then two weeks later, I was stuck on NBA TV. That’s just what I watch every day. I turn on TV and I’m watching NBA TV. I just wanted to play basketball. That’s my love; that’s what I wanted to do.'”