December 11, 2007 @ 1:25 pm
Oden Overload
by: Chris Yuscavage
Five minutes with Portland Trailblazer rookie Greg Oden, the cover star of College Hoops 2K8
Soft pretzels. TastyKakes. Original Peanut Chews. There's worse ways to spend a chilly Friday afternoon in mid-November than holed up at the Four Seasons Hotel in the City of Brotherly Love - sampling the local flavor and playing XBox 360 with Portland Trailblazers rookie Greg Oden. True, trekking from the "friendly" confines of New York City - where a New York Giants fan can, well, be a New York Giants fan - to Philadelphia, where the people basically eat, sleep and drink the 76ers, the Flyers and, especially, the Eagles, sounded like a bit much at first. But once you get past the well-worn streets (seriously, who paved Philadelphia?) and the obnoxious 'Iggles' fans (the "Fly Eagles Fly" joint is way overrated, folks), Philly isn't a bad place to visit at all.
Especially if you're kicking it with Greg Oden. His towering frame tucked onto a small red couch in a conference room of the Four Seasons, Oden looks noticeably tired but every bit the NBA superstar everyone expected him to be. Of course, he was injured during his preseason workouts earlier this year, underwent microfracture surgery to repair his right knee and won't step on the court for the first time until next year. But that hasn't held the big man down. In fact, he's gracing the cover of College Hoops 2K8, which is, quite simply, the best NCAA college basketball game on the market today. And, as he's quick to explain, this was the perfect year to feature Oden. With new features like Lock-On D (getting up in your man's grill for a steal has never been easier), All-American Training (where you can actually go head-to-head against former college stars like Oden, Mike Conley Jr. and last year's cover boy J.J. Redick) and an improved Legacy mode (complete with high school scouting and recruiting), this game has game. In a serious way.
So I put down the Koffee Kakes (if you've never had a TastyKake, maaan, you don't know what you're missing) and asked Greg about his involvement with the development of College Hoops 2K8, the new features, and, of course, picking out the photo he wanted to see on the cover of the game. Just hours before sitting through a battle between the Sixers and the Blazers, here's what the big man had to say.
VIBE: So, before we get into the specifics of the game, Greg, how did you even go aboutlanding on the cover of College Hoops 2K8? Your Ohio State University team did lose to the University of Florida in the NCAA championship game last season. Did you have to petition hard for it?
GREG ODEN: [laughs] Well, I'm not going to lie to you. My agent did all that. I was just chilling one day and he was like, 'Hey, you want to build with 2K Sports and do a cover?' As long as they used a good picture of me, you know I was fine with it!
