When Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden went down with his foot sprain in the opening game of the season one might have thought all the microbreweries in Portland had gone dry or that people suddenly were being forced to live off only what was in their stock portfolios. Yep, the general reaction was the sky has fallen and the franchise was about to collapse, taking the city and everything else with it.

Of course, this was an overreaction – and not just any overreaction, but a gross overreaction. The word "injury-prone" suddenly became synonymous with Oden, as much a part of his description as "tall." Images of Bill Walton and Sam Bowie with their injury-shortened careers were evoked. Seriously, though, is that even fair to Oden, this early in what is still a promising career?

No player wants to have a label like "injury-prone" forever attached to his name. Media and fans have used this as an Oden adjective for awhile, but interestingly enough people in the game don't see it that way. There is literally nothing medically to relate Oden's knee injury and microfracture surgery to the broken wrist he suffered before school started freshman year at Ohio State University, yet those things are lumped together as evidence of proneness to injury.

Injured again and out until about December, Oden now faces a serious mental challenge. He has put much pressure on himself to produce, but now he needs to allow himself to heal. For an athlete at any level, that's the biggest challenge of all.

Oden is by far not the first big-time NBA center to suffer injuries. Yao Ming, the All-Star center of the Houston Rockets, has dealt with various foot injuries himself. Over the previous three season Yao has missed a total of 86 games. Yao is so important to his team's success, the overriding caveat added to any Houston Rockets prognostication has been "If they can stay healthy…"

Because of all that, he has changed the way he approaches preparing for a game.

"I've cut down the practice some, to save energy and rest my body," said Yao. "I think about long-term, the whole season. I try to find a balance between strength training and endurance."

Those changes in preparation have allowed him to just play when he's on the court.

"I think about it off the court, yes, but on the court you don't have time to think. Everything happens so quickly. When you train for a long time to play basketball, everything is automatic. What happens on the court is just natural reaction, so you can't really think about preventing an injury."

Cleveland Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, another All-Star, dealt with the issue quite a bit early in his career. After multiple stress fractures in his feet and other injuries forced him to miss 155 games in his second through fourth seasons, Ilgauskas has been relatively healthy in the last six, averaging 78 games played. He credits a much needed mental toughness and resiliency to getting back to the Cavaliers and producing what had been expected all along.

"I just never gave up," said Ilgauskas. "They kept setting me back and it was frustrating. It takes a toll on you mentally and physically. It's hard for your family, especially the big injuries that can make you miss the whole season. In my case I was still young so I was able to recover, but it's almost like shooting craps – some people deal with it and recover, and some people can't deal with it. It depends on your body, depends on the surgery, and rehab is very important. Bad rehab can make a surgery look bad and vice versa.  I had to put in a lot of hours in rehab."

Like Yao, Ilgauskas also changed his routine to do whatever he could to prevent another devastating injury.

"Ice became my best friend, so I ice a lot. As far as my feet are concerned I do different exercises almost every day, just trying to keep my feet stronger. I stopped taping, which helped."

Back in Portland, Oden's head coach and general manager recognize the biggest part of him getting healthy and back on track is mental.

"You want to play, and the one thing about this league it that it's even more stressful to play with an injury," explained Coach Nate McMillan. "It's because you are playing against the best and you aren't 100%. It's important that you be disciplined enough and patient enough to allow yourself to heal so that you can perform at the level that you expect to perform at, and you aren't carrying a nagging injury throughout the year."

General Manager Kevin Pritchard believes Oden will overcome this latest setback.

"Greg is disappointed, but I've tried to communicate that this is a long process," said Pritchard. "He's going to play 15 years in this league and this is just a bump in the road. The thing that we're most encouraged with about Greg is that he's – I don't want to say desperate is the right word – but wants to just get out and play basketball.

"You know what? There have been guys who have been through microfracture and it takes them a year and a half to get really back. We shouldn't put too much pressure (on him); he's playing as hard as he can. What you see now is not the player you are going to see at the end of the season."

And no matter what anyone may think, never once is Pritchard going to doubt the franchise's decision to draft Oden.

"We know we have the right person because of his character and how much he cares about winning," Pritchard said adamantly.

So if everyone agrees mental toughness is the key here, and that Oden seems to have what it takes, what would two All-Star centers with injury-riddled pasts offer to Greg Oden as advice?

"Get a good warm-up before the game, and spend time recovering after the game," said Yao. "Take care of your body and use your trainers."

"Just be strong," offered Ilgauskas. "He's a young guy so he's got his whole future in front of him and a lot of talent. Just don't get frustrated, don't get down on yourself, and there's a lot of basketball left in his career.

"More than anything just be patient and make sure when you come back you are 100%. Don't rush it."

This mental game will be tougher – and has been tougher – than just about anything an NBA defense can throw at Greg Oden. It's challenging and it will test his desire and will. However, as Ilgauskas has shown and Yao is trying to show, the label and the injuries can be shed with the right mix of mental toughness, training, rehabilitation and – maybe most of all – support from those who want to see them succeed.