Oden's inner nerd is described in an upcoming book, Don't Put Me In, Coach, by his former Ohio State teammate Mark Titus.
Titus, a white player from Brownsburg, Ind., and writer of the Club Trillion blog, admits that he was worried about how he would be accepted by his Buckeyes teammates, who were mostly black.
An incident early in Titus' college career helped allay his concerns, in an excerpt posted by SB Nation. During a tournament in Las Vegas, Titus turned down an opportunity to see an Ashanti concert to instead go see a magic show with his dad. He was sheepish about his "inner nerd" until he mentioned it to Oden, who immediately asked if he could ditch the Ashanti show, too, and go watch some magic tricks.
"That's right — when given the choice between a concert featuring one of the best R&B singers at the time and a $15 matinee magic show, Greg picked the magic show without hesitation," Titus writes. "This single decision contradicated every stereotype I ever had about black basketball players and helped subdue all of the uneasiness I had about integrating with my new teammates."
Turning down tickets to an Ashanti concert isn't exactly begging out of Woodstock, but this story is just more evidence of what a shame it is that we haven't gotten a chance to learn more about Oden over the years.
