Remember Greg Oden? He used to play basketball. He'd like to play basketball again.

Greg Oden is the NBA's Greek tragedy—a body outwardly designed for basketball dominance, but with an internal structure woefully insufficient for the task. Oden hasn't played since his patella attempted to escape in 2009, and underwent his third microfracture surgery on his knees in February. He's been rehabbing,…

Mark Titus has a piece over at Grantland that offers a "rare and candid" look at the reclusive Greg Oden, who was finally released by the Trail Blazers in March after five seasons marked mostly by injuries. Titus, who writes about his basketball experiences on his blog, Club Trillion, acknowledges up front that he's…

It was only a matter of time, really, once word got out last month that Greg Oden would again need knee surgery, and this time on the knee that hadn't been bothering him in the last two-plus years. But now that Portland has committed to building up by tearing down—the Blazers sent Marcus Camby to Houston and Gerald…

They're opening up Oden's left knee (not the one that was operated on earlier this month) to "remove debris," which can only help. It's not good to play basketball with debris in your knee. [Oregonian]

Yet another procedure on Greg Oden's 90-year-old knees, but this one has a surprise twist.

Brandon Roy retired from professional basketball last week, at the age of 27 and after just five seasons in the NBA. He has, he told the Portland Trail Blazers, "degenerative knees."

The Portland Blazers are expected to make Greg Oden — the most easily-forgotten TMZ star of our time and the youngest veteran in the league — a restricted free agent with a $8.8 million qualifying offer for a one-year contract extension. With the offer alone, the Blazers will reserve the right to match any subsequent…

Another injury has taken another year from Greg Oden. We've put together this tribute to the creaky-legged giant. We wish him a speedy recovery.

Greg Oden's done, which means we're consigned to another year of summoning the spirit of sad old Sam Bowie from whatever well he's fallen down. Anyone tempted to compare the two similarly star-crossed, but otherwise totally different players should consider the following: