Published: March 05, 2008 11:09 pm         

B-Sides: Greg Oden may be hurt, but he just threw down a huge influence dunk

TERRE HAUTE — This move by Greg Oden doesn’t match a dazzling dunk or blocked shot on the ESPN highlights.

It’s better.

Like it or not, NBA players influence millions of youngsters with their feats, style and antics on the court. Oden hasn’t had that chance yet. Surgery on the basketball phenom’s injured knee forced him to sit out this season, his rookie year with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Yet, without even suiting up, Oden said something last week that every American kid can admire — he intends to vote.

That alone doesn’t make him unique. Yes, his resume (a No. 1 draft pick), size (7-foot, 260 pounds) and latest haircut (a mohawk) set Oden apart from most 20-year-olds. But his civic-mindedness fits right in with record numbers of young people who’ve already voted in 2008 presidential nominating contests across the nation.

America, or even his boyhood hometown of Terre Haute, doesn’t have to care that Oden plans to cast a ballot for Barack Obama in the upcoming Oregon primary. But Oden’s modest, refreshing explanation deserves attention.

In his blog, Oden wrote, “We are all citizens of this great country, and I know I’m putting in my one vote. I know it’s just one small vote, but it’s big to me.”

It really wouldn’t matter whether Oden was supporting Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain or Ron Paul. What’s significant is that this 20-year-old athlete is excited about exercising a constitutional right that a majority of Americans take for granted.

Of course, most of us won’t get our inspiration through a personal phone call from a presidential candidate. (That’s a surreal thought. I can’t imagine my daughter answering the phone and hollering, “Da-a-a-a-d, it’s Barack Obama.”) Obama called Oden last Tuesday, and the two men talked sports for a few minutes. The timing was hardly coincidental. Key March 4 primaries were looming in four states, including Ohio, where Oden starred last year with the 2007 NCAA runner-up Ohio State Buckeyes.

The campaign didn’t come up, though.

“I’m pretty sure he talks politics 24/7 with people who know a lot more than me, so we just talked about basketball,” Oden said on the “Jim Rome Show” last Thursday.

Obama’s knowledge of the Blazers and NBA hoops impressed Oden as well. “So it was pretty amazing just to see somebody who may be the next president knowing a lot about my team,” Oden told Rome.

Perhaps Obama studied Portland before calling Oden. After they spoke, Oden studied Obama’s background, too.

“I am going to vote for him,” Oden said on the show. “I did a little bit of homework, and I really like some of his policies and some of the things he believes in.”

Oden carefully kept that endorsement in perspective. He didn’t try to persuade or pressure anyone to back Obama, and he put the brakes on Rome when the blunt radio and TV sports commentator asked Oden to explain his “decision to become politically active.”

Oden quickly answered, “I’m not saying I’m getting into politics. I’m just saying that I did my homework, and I’m going to vote. This is my first year to vote [in a presidential election], and I’m just saying this is the guy I’m going to vote for, and I’m not telling people that they have to vote for him. I’m telling them to get educated and get informed and make a decision of what’s best for them and their family.”

And when Rome asked him what “it would mean to have an African-American president of this country,” Oden instead focused on Obama’s potential. “I don’t look at it like that,” Oden responded. “I just look at it that I think he’s the guy who’s best fit to run this country the best, and who I feel safe with.”

In their phone conversation, he and Obama also talked hair, Oden’s hair. His mohawk did not win Obama’s endorsement.

“He said he wasn’t really feelin’ it,” Oden said as Rome cracked up. “But I said, ‘It’s just a haircut to me.’”

The Democrat frontrunner’s opinion must’ve made an impact on Oden, at least a little. “I actually cut it down about an inch after he told me,” Oden explained. The mohawk’s still there. It’s just a more subdued mohawk, if there is such a thing. Rome nodded his approval and said, “Be your own man.”

Oden seems to be that. In a bipartisan gesture less than two days after endorsing Obama, Oden teamed with first lady Laura Bush (her husband’s a prominent Republican) at a conference of teachers, students and other educators in Portland called Helping America’s Youth. The event grew from an idea by President Bush to raise awareness about problems facing 21st-century teenagers.

Oden told the kids about adults who’d been positive influences in his life, according to The Associated Press. This big guy, in a small way, provided some positive influence of his own last week.



Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

     

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