Oden dealing with tragic death of best friend

ATLANTA — It might seem quite difficult to feel alone when more than 100,000 eyes are watching your every move in a mammoth building hard by the downtown of a major American city while millions more are watching on television. Greg Oden will feel very alone tonight when his Ohio State team plays Florida for the national championship at the Georgia Dome.

When your best friend, really the one friend from the one family that loves you because of who you are and not what you represent, dies in the middle of what was supposed to be a glorious basketball season, you are alone. Oden has been alone since Jan.27, the night Travis Smith died after a car accident in Muncie, Ind., a few blocks from the campus of Ball State University where he was a freshman and a star golfer.

Smith and his family were like Oden's second family. Smith's father Jimmy, a college teammate of Larry Bird's at Indiana State, was Oden's first basketball coach when he was in fourth grade.

Jimmy Smith and his daughter Courtney, 16, were in San Antonio last weekend to watch Greg when Ohio State qualified for the Final Four. Now, they are in Panama City, Fla., on vacation during his daughter's spring break. Smith wanted to be in Atlanta, but...

"My daughter has been having a tough time," he said yesterday morning. "We thought it would be best if we got away for a while. I called Greg and said, 'It's not that I don't love you and I don't want to be there.' He understood and he called her and talked to her."

Nearly 1,000 people attended Travis Smith's funeral on Jan.31 in Terre Haute. The Smiths' church was too small so the service was moved to a larger church. The night before, more than 4,000 people came to pay their respects.

"Visitation was supposed to be from 4 to 9 and we didn't get out of there until midnight," said Jimmy Smith, the executive director of the Terre Haute Boys and Girls Club then and now. "The outpouring of support was unreal."

Smith, his wife Tami and daughter get calls from friends all the time. They speak with one friend every day.

"Greg calls Court and stays in touch with Tami and I," Smith said. "He's been really good about staying in touch. We're doing OK. Every day it's a challenge. Every time something comes up, it's the first thing you think about when you get up in the morning and the last thing you think about when you go to bed at night.

"We went to San Antonio last week. I thought maybe getting away would change things, but it doesn't. It's still there. It's a day-by-day process. Life goes on. I've got a young daughter to take care of so that's my priority."

He watched Saturday night's semifinals like a coach would watch it.

"Those first two fouls on him were atrocious," Smith said. "I remember watching Shaq in college. It's the same thing with him. Every time Shaquille moved, they called a foul on him. The same thing is going to happen to him next year [if there is a next year in college]."

People who don't know Greg assume he is a sphinx because he shows no emotion. That is just who he is.

"He never shows much emotion," Smith said. "That's kind of the way he's been since he's a little kid."

He also happens to have a wry sense of humor, a very soft voice and a perceptiveness that is obvious if people take the time to listen.

Going from one media session to another yesterday afternoon, Oden listened politely to every question and had answers that were sometimes short, but were always right to the point.

His reaction when all of Florida's underclassmen came back after winning the national championship?

"I have to play against them."

Favorite NBA player? Dwight Howard.

What if he were in the NBA now?

"This is my life right now. I don't really think about what could have been."

His favorite class? Biology 101.

"There's 600 people, 400 girls."

But you have a girlfriend.

"I do, but it's good to just watch."

Oden does not want to be a star. Stardom has really been thrust upon him because of his height and his ability.

"When they go to eat [at the] training table, Greg will sit with the managers and not the team," Smith said. "He simply feels more comfortable with them."

Just like he felt more comfortable with Travis, his basketball teammate when he wasn't a star, his friend before and after he became a star.

"When this is over, I am anxious to sit down and talk with him about everything," Smith said. "We really haven't had much chance to talk outside the telephone."

Before his son died, Smith was certain Oden was going to turn pro after this season. He was not happy that Greg's teammates weren't passing him the ball. He really thought he would be better off in the NBA.

"Before, I thought there was 100 percent chance he was going to go," Smith said. "The more I talk to him and talk to his mom, I don't know, I think it's probably a 50-50 deal. It's not about the basketball part at all. He was looking for Travis to go with him wherever he went. Greg's a loner.

"I know all these people think him and the Conleys [are close], that he's got such close friends, in reality, I don't think that's the truth. He and Travis had this relationship where he could always depend on Travis to be there and somebody to talk to and get an opinion from. I just don't think he does that with other people."

Smith recently read a story where Mike Conley said Greg could get in moods where he doesn't talk to people for 2, 3, 4 days.

"See, that's not the way it was with Travis or even our family," Smith said. "He's not like that. He's been a part of our lives since he was 9 years old and it's had nothing to do [with his basketball ability]. At that time, we didn't know what he was going to end up being or anything else. It's just been that constant relationship with Trav and Courtney and our family. Even after Travis' death, he just feels he's part of our family and that's the way it will always be."

In San Antonio, Courtney was wearing a T-shirt that read "Oden's Little Sis." In his dorm room, Greg Oden, 19, has photos of Travis. He now drives Travis' 2005 Chevy Avalanche. He was a pallbearer at Travis' funeral. On May 5, Travis Smith would have been 20 years old. *