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http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2029 ... -own-words

Real nice story, one of my favorite players in the league. Cool to see what it's like going into recovery from an injury in professional sports.

My progress continued in 2008, and on June 16—about 16 months after the injury—I was cleared to play. Then in October, the Miami Heat gave me a shot. That was all Erik Spoelstra and Dwyane Wade. Erik believed in me. He watched me a lot in the film room when I was on the Clippers, and he was a fan of my game. And then with Dwyane, we had the same agent at the time, Henry Thomas, and he vouched for me. It was great to see the Heat give Greg Oden a shot this season after his knee issues. That's what the Heat organization is all about; it's like a family environment.

In regards to his favorite coaches to play for.

Even Spoelstra. I learned a lot from watching him. His work ethic was pretty crazy. Just watching the amount of time he put into his craft, being the first one to arrive. He was the one that was working the whiteboard. Usually that's the assistant coaches. He put in a lot of work, so to see him have success, it feels good to watch him. That was his first year, in 2008, and he was the youngest head coach in the league at the time. I saw how hard he worked, so I can appreciate that.

I am happy for Shaun. He almost had a career ending injury and came back strong. I think Greg will have similar success, maybe not this season but next year after a full training camp he can be a legit starter

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Unlike Livingston, guys like Oden don't just grow on trees. We CANNOT let him flee to another team.

Yeah another offseason will do a lot for Oden. I think he can be had for the minimum again, which is great for us.

And all of this is already known about Spoelstra and Spoelstra is one of the best coaches in the league despite what the Beasley cult says to you.

The guy has 2 championship rings as the head coach of the team and one day he's going to be in Pat Riley's chair at the top of the organization, putting all his rings to the table and recruiting the future Lebron-type talent to Miami.

Ah, you mean Kyrie Irving, Andrew Wiggins, and Karl Towns/Jahlil Okafor. Interesting. Believable.

He was in a Heat uniform for a short stint, wish he would've played then like he does now.

RJM wrote:Unlike Livingston, guys like Oden don't just grow on trees. We CANNOT let him flee to another team.

I know what you mean about oden, but Livingston is a pretty unique player himself. he might not be nearly as physically imposing as oden but he has great size for what he does and has a pretty high ball IQ. he is 6'7, has legitimate point guard skills and is unselfish/a great role player. every contending team needs a guy like that.


OT, i'm really happy for Livingston. he had a lot of potential when he came into the league and never stopped working despite his injury situation. he is now healthy and is relatively young, I think he has a bright future even if his role doesn't get much bigger.

Im also happy to for Livingston and always liked his game. Glad to see him persist and its getting rewarded now. Hopefully Oden can go the same way except that it is with us and not another team

Was behind him in line at the Big Lots in Hallandale. That's right. NBA ballers shop at Big Lots too.

Very happy for this dude, works his tail off and overcame a very serious injury. Next year he is going to get a big payday, and he deserves every dollar.

Hmmm.... Might be a nice PG option for us in 2014-5.