Wait over, Oden is ready to go (cont.)

While Greg Oden (left) got used to a sideline perspective after his knee surgery, nothing prepared him for the speed of the game until he stepped on the court in the preseason. John W. McDonough/SI

Yet McMillan emphasizes that the Blazers will still look inside to Oden on the blocks. "I don't want to put a number on what we expect from Greg offensively," says McMillan. "But he has skills. He has footwork. He has -- I hesitate to make this comparison exactly -- some of Shaquille's ability on offense. He walks you in, and when he's deep enough, he'll overpower you. And if you come and double-team, he's willing to give it up.

"Greg is a very poised, very patient and very unselfish big man. My guess is that by January, I'll be yelling at him to shoot more. That's O.K. We're just going to take it slow. That's the plan."

The Blazers are good with plans. They had one before the Ping-Pong balls brought them Oden: to remake a team that had lost its nestling spot in the warm bosom of loyal Portland fans, having earned the sobriquet of Jail Blazers through the on-court and off-court misadventures of players such as Rasheed Wallace, Isaiah Rider, Damon Stoudamire, Bonzi Wells, Ruben Patterson, Zach Randolph, Qyntel Woods and Darius Miles. Pritchard (who arrived in 2004 as director of player personnel and was named G.M. late in the '06-07 season) and McMillan (who became coach before the '05-06 season) wanted to rebuild with what Pritchard calls "character guys." So far it has worked, not least because Pritchard pulled off some draft-day magic to get solid citizens Aldridge (from the Bulls) and Roy (from the Minnesota Timberwolves). Perhaps that karmic improvement was the reason the Blazers won the '07 lottery despite having only a 5.3% chance to do so.

Though Kevin Durant, the other tempting choice in the '07 draft, has beguiling offensive talents, Portland focused on Oden from the outset. Pritchard said he felt even better about the pick after Oden woke up from the surgery on his knee.

"I said, 'Greg, you had microfracture surgery. You're probably going to be out the whole year.' And his response was, 'I'm so sorry.' He kept saying it over and over. 'I'm so sorry.' It was at that point I told everybody, 'This is the exact guy we want for our franchise.' "

***

The exact guy settles himself into a chair behind a desk at the Blazers' practice facility 15 miles south of downtown Portland. It is a week before his preseason debut. He holds a plate of postpractice food and smiles apologetically. "You mind if I eat while we talk?" Oden asks, unfailingly polite. Over the next 30 minutes the food gets cold. "I don't want to talk with my mouth full," he says with a smile when he's urged to eat.

Oden's size and friendly demeanor invite comparisons with Shaq, which are understandable but not perfect. From O'Neal's first days at LSU in 1989, there was a hurly-burly air to him. Shaq was, and remains, "on." By contrast, there's an air of quietude about Oden -- less theater, less scene-stealing.

Still, Oden's public forays, his blogging, his No. 1 draft position, his unmistakable corporeal presence and his grizzled-vet countenance have turned him into a personality without portfolio. A few weeks before the season, Oden elected to lower his profile, even rejecting a request to pose for the cover of this issue. "There are a lot of players who deserve to be on the cover more than me," he explains between rare bites. "It's time I started earning some things."

He is enthusiastic about voting in his first presidential election ("Obama's a guy who caught my interest even though my tax bracket would have me vote otherwise," he says), but as the season draws near, he hasn't paid close attention to the race. Asked where he will cast his ballot on Nov. 4, Oden's face shows a flash of panic. "Man, I better see where we are," he says, grabbing a pocket schedule off the desk of Chris Bowles, the Blazers' director of player programs. "Ooh, we're in Utah. Well, Chris will take care of it."

The Blazers have been good at taking care of things. (Bowles subsequently did arrange for Oden and several teammates to cast absentee ballots.) Throughout the six months that Oden rode the bench last season, there was never a major public relations slipup. That is harder than one might think; injured players are often a major distraction to teams. But as methodically as the Trail Blazers remade their team, so did they establish, and stick to, a plan for Oden's supporting-role performance.

First of all, he was absolutely, positively not going to play, no matter how well his rehab went. He was encouraged to go on several road trips -- a few back-to-backs so he could learn how that makes the body feel and an 11-day January excursion so he could familiarize himself with arenas in the East. He was expected to show up for games at the Rose Garden, on time and in NBA-mandated business casual. Though limited by injury, Oden fulfilled some rookie tasks, such as helping to unload the equipment truck on the road. Only rarely did McMillan direct questions to him in team meetings; the Blazers wanted him to feel a part of the team but not as if he was on trial.

Nor did Oden thrust himself into the spotlight. He was never caught even hinting at a weakness of, say, Przybilla, or suggesting how much better Portland would be were he in the lineup. "First off, I'm a rookie, so I don't know anything about the NBA anyway," says Oden. "Why should you talk if you can't contribute?"

The fact that everything worked out didn't mean it was easy, though. "After my knee started coming around, I wanted to play really bad," says Oden, who was admonished but not fined when he was caught playing pickup ball at a Portland gym last March. "I didn't care if it was for two minutes. I did not want to be considered a rookie this season. A player wants to be with his draft class. What if I make the rookie-sophomore All-Star game this season? [A take-it-to-the-bank bet if he's healthy.] I'll be playing against the guys I was drafted with."

The party line is that Oden learned by watching, but the center says that the game unfolds so fast that picking up individual opponent weaknesses was nearly impossible. "What helped me the most -- and I know this sounds strange -- is watching guys miss," he says. "I remember during one of the San Antonio games Tim [Duncan] missed an easy shot, and it almost startled me. Man, when you're watching a game on TV, you think that he never misses that shot. So it boosts your confidence. I didn't pick up any strategic stuff, but I did come away feeling, O.K., I miss shots, they miss shots. I can play with these guys."

McMillan felt that Oden hit the typical midseason rookie wall (the rehab routine being as numbingly difficult as actually playing). But Oden says the toughest part for him came much earlier, in December, when the Blazers went on a 13-game winning streak. "I think when it got to 10 games -- maybe it's something about double figures -- it drove me crazy not to be playing," he says. "There was so much hype around here, and, man, I wasn't contributing to any of it. I wanted to be out there celebrating with the guys after every game. But I couldn't."

***

Exactly how much the Trail Blazers will be celebrating this season depends on several factors: The continued improvement of Roy and Aldridge. The quality of point guard play from Steve Blake (pass-first incumbent), Jerryd Bayless (shoot-first rookie) and Sergio Rodríguez (third-year question mark). The maturation of Spanish rookie guard Rudy Fernández, who has All-Star-caliber skills but may need some time to adjust to the physical NBA game. The willingness of forwards such as Martell Webster (who is out until December with a stress fracture in his left foot), Travis Outlaw and Channing Frye to contribute as their minutes invariably go down with Oden and Fernández on the floor. And don't forget that the Blazers, for all of their overachievement last season, were still only the 10th-best team in the conference; to ascend in the West, they will need slippage from the aging but still formidable triumvirate of San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix.

But it's undeniable that the focus is on Oden. He doesn't have to be Bill Russell from the outset, but he sure as hell can't be Kwame Brown. After all, it's a three-story-high Oden jersey that hangs from the side of the Rose Garden, and it will be the chant of O-DIN! O-DIN! (conveniently, the chief Norse god) that will reverberate most raucously through the arena when the Blazers are rolling. The long wait has only increased the anticipation to see whether pleasure delayed is pleasure doubled or pleasure denied.

That's a lot of pressure ... for a rookie.

"They'll probably make me do some rookie stuff again," says Oden. "That's O.K. I'm so eager to play, I'll carry balls, luggage, whatever." Fortunately, he's not being asked to carry a team. Not yet, anyway.