A few nights after finally seeing Oden in his first NBA game, I got to thinking about what a long time it's been since Oden appeared on the scene. So I searched for Oden's name in the Sports Illustrated Vault. I wanted to read his first article in the magazine. "Way Ahead of Schedule" was written for the Dec. 6, 2004 issue of Sports Illustrated. The rest of the article is just as glowing. It's kind of cool to look back at Oden as a high schooler, especially since he's lived almost continuously in the media spotlight ever since. Even with the surgery, I'm still positively ecstatic that we got Greg Oden.
great to read about young Greg being discovered as a 4th grader. Imagine being a peer going up against him when he was a 6'4 sixth grader. I also thought the ad on the right for an ebay auctioning of an autographed player card from his McDonald's All-American game with the current bid up to over 200$ was of note... STOMP
Excellent find! Thanks so much. I love it when G.O. dunks and hangs on the rim for a second. The crowd goes nuts.
