By Joe Becker

"It's been a beautiful experience." That's how Greg Oden's mother Zoe Oden described her visit to Portland this week.

Oden was here with her son Greg Oden, who had meetings with Nike. The Blazers won the lottery this week...the NBA Draft Lottery...and chances are they will take Oden, the 7-foot Center from Ohio St.

Oden is just the kind of player the Blazers are looking for. An extremely talented player, who seems like a great guy in every way. His mother is certainly very nice and she couldn't say enough about the Rose City...and she is awfully proud of her son.
"Greg is really a good kid," Zoe says, "Never any problems...and always well behaved and well mannered."

I was talking with someone from the Indianapolis Star newspaper today and he told me...you're getting another good one from Indiana. The Oden's are from Indianapolis, Indiana. He said that Oden won the Trester award during the State High School tournament. It's the Arthur L. Trester Mental Attitude Award. The Indiana High School Activities Association vote on the award. The winner displays a number of traits including mental atttitude, leadership qaulities, academic achievement and athletic ability.

Get this, Oden is one of only four players to be named National High School player of the year twice. Lebron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jerry Lucas are the others. Pretty exclusive company. By the way, Oden led Lawrence North High to a 103-7 overall record and three consecutive 4a State Titles.

So what did Mrs. Oden and Greg think when the Blazers won the lottery? "We heard it was going to be Boston or Memphis," Zoe said. "Portland shocked us," she continued..."in a wonderful way. It's been hard to leave and go back. It's been a wonderful experience."

The next few years might be a wonderful experience for Portland and the Blazers too...having Oden in the Rose City.