--Greg Oden and Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade are the national basketball spokesmen for Topps, the trading card company that conducts clinics in football, basketball and baseball. Oden was the featured name at a camp for youths aged seven to 14 last weekend in Portland, the second camp in which Oden has participated this summer.
"I did the Buckeye Superstar Camp (in Columbus, Ohio) with Mike Conley (Jr.)," says Oden, who helped Ohio State to the national championship game in his only season there. "It's fun to get out here with the kids. You walk in, you see them, they all try to look mean. Then you interact and do the same drills they're doing and they're smiling. "I think back to when I did those drills at that age. That was a long time ago."
--Dwayne Wade came away from Beijing impressed with Trail Blazer rookie guard Rudy Fernandez, a star with the Spanish Olympic team who had 22 points against the U.S. team.
"He's an unbelievable talent," Wade said. "The way he shoots the ball and how athletic he is -- I'm sure Nate McMillan (the Blazer coach who was an assistant on the U.S. Olympic team) didn't want him to play like that against us, but I'm sure he was smiling on the inside."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "It would be nice to have B-Roy and me win it, but if we make the playoffs and I don't get Rookie of the Year, I'm perfectly fine with that." -- C Greg Oden, referring to Brandon Roy winning the NBA's top rookie award two seasons ago.
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