Greg Oden – What Happened and What Can He Do About It?

Greg Oden is quickly becoming the oldest 24 year old in the NBA and the most overpaid bench warmer in recent NBA history. It was reported this morning on the Portland Trailblazers Twitter account that:

“Portland C Greg Oden will undergo an arthroscopic procedure later today in Vail, CO to remove debris from his right knee.” 

Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune reports: “Team trainer Jay Jensen won’t talk about Oden, and interim general manager Chad Buchanan speaks only in vague terms about the oft-injured, oft-maligned would-be player.” No-one has been able to get Greg Oden or his surgeon Dr. Richard Steadman, to talk about what is going on at all. This is driving the media crazy!

But do we really have to talk with Greg Oden, his trainer, surgeon, coach, or General Manager to know why Greg is going back under the knife and why he’s not yet playing MVP-style basketball?

I don’t think so. I know why Greg has only played 82 games in his NBA career and has yet to get back to health after multiple surgeries. Greg Oden’s posture sucks! I’ve blogged about this before but apparently the Trailblazers have yet to listen and do anything about Greg’s terrible posture that is wrecking havoc on his body, the teams success, and the teams payroll.

Take a look for yourself:

Notice how his right shoulder is lower? You can find hundreds of photos of him and he’s always dropped on his right shoulder.

This head shot from the Blazers website shows his right shoulder lower.

And again here – right shoulder dropped.

And again…

And again! But also notice how turned out his feet are (called foot eversion).

It has been reported that his right hip is higher,

and we can see that his shoulders and upper back are rounded forward above,

and his head is forward of his shoulders.

You might be asking: “Shoulder lower? Feet turned out? Upper back and shoulders rounded forward? Head forward? What the heck does that have to do with his knee?”

Good question. Answer: “Foot bones connected to the ankle bone, ankle bone’s connected to the shin bone…” The body works as a unit and if one joint is out of alignment it is going to effect the rest of the body.

Try it yourself: turn your right foot out at 45 degrees and try running across the room. Notice how your knee and hip are effected?

And try this: round your shoulders forward and down and jump up and down. Notice how your knees are more stressed.

The human body is designed to be aligned in a very specific way as far as joint and bone alignment and when a body is out of balance or misaligned it will lead to pain, injury and disability. Surgery is treating the symptom of knee joint wear and tear but NOT the cause of knee joint wear and tear. The cause of Greg’s knee problems is his posture! Fix the posture and he is better. 

Greg Oden (or Bob Medina, Todd Forcier, Dr. Richard Steadman, Jay Jensen, Chad Buchanan, Nate McMillan) if you are interested in getting your body and career back, give me a call. I’d be happy to talk with you, show you your postural imbalances, and help you get on the road to a full and complete recovery.