All has been fairly quiet on the Greg Oden rehabilitiation front since the Portland Trail Blazers center underwent season-ending microfracture surgery in November.
Trail Blazers Director of Pro Scouting Mike Born told Blazers.com on Tuesday that he spoke with Oden after Portland's home win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday. Asked for an update on Oden's rehabilitation progress, Born said, "He's still using the cane right now when he's walking. But he's also, for the last three or four days here, been able to get on the treadmill and start to walk."
Weight-bearing activity represents a step forward in Oden's rehabilitation process. "He's not doing a ton of stuff, his rehab has been he's been able to be in the pool, ride on a bike," Born said. "Most of that stuff has been non-weight bearing. Now he's sort of able to get on a treadmill, we talked about it, he was able to walk his dog the other day."
Born said he empathized with Oden, former-player-to-player. "It's tough, man. I've been a basketball player and been hurt. When you can't get out and do the things you're used to doing, especially when it comes to walking, I think everybody knows how good it feels, especially people who enjoy working out, sort of how good you feel about going out and getting a good workout in or a good sweat. When it's tough to do that, you can get in a pool and ride a bike and at least do those things, but still there's nothing like being able to get out and walk or run or jump or shoot and do those things. Just to release that stress. I can just tell when I was talking to him, I could tell it felt great to just be able to get out and just walk. Something that people take for granted. Obviously he hasn't been able to do that for a couple of months now."
Born made the comments on TrailBlazers.Tv's "Up And Adam" Show, hosted by team broadcaster Adam Bjaranson.
Oden is now roughly two months removed from his surgery date. An orthopaedic surgeon from the clinic that performed his microfracture surgery estimated that a return to the court could take "at least a year or so."
-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter