When Greg Oden entered the league, he was seen as a fun-loving kid who just happened to look 45. Well, now his persona is reportedly matching his appearance, taking a nose dive just when a number of middle-aged stock brokers watch their retirement pension funds go up in smoke. Hey, you’d be pretty depressed, too, if you lost $3 million in a week.

(Leave Greg and his puppy alone. They’re sulking.)

Oden? This guy should be happy with one of the world’s greatest lives. He’s an immensely compensated professional athlete who lives in a beautiful city that wants nothing more than to love him as he resurrects the franchise. The problem is that, while the Trail Blazers are clearly on an upswing, Oden hasn’t been the catalyst. That’s left the big man more than sulky, according to PORTLAND OREGONIAN beat writer Jason Quick on Portland’s 1080 THE FAN sports radio on Wednesday. Here’s the best pull from what Quick had to say:

I can’t really stand to be around him. He’s such a downer. He’s not a very fun guy to be around and he’s not a very fun guy to talk to. I think his teammates like him, but that guy is not interacting with very many guys in the locker room right now. He can’t let go of being Greg Oden. I think he’s obsessing with all this expectations. Until he starts having fun again playing basketball, he’s not going to get better. I don’t know how he’s going to do that.

That sure sounds like early burnout, doesn’t it?

Keep in mind, Oden has had the media spotlight trained on him since he first started AAU ball at age 14. He was followed and stalked as a teenager more intensely than some pros ever are.

(One of these guys might be depressed! Can you guess who?)

Still, the guy is burning out less than three months into his first professional season? Really? Couldn’t pre-draft screening have shown Oden as an easily frustrated talent? Or has he become sullen and chronically depressed with his knee and ankle problems in a way he never was with his collegiate wrist injury?

It’s all a perplexing dilemma, especially for a guy who has so much talent, size and, by all accounts, a quirky, fun-loving personality? That ESPN ad is golden, and just last week we were writing about how his favorite show is Gossip Girl (really!). The chasm between the person he clearly wants to be — watcher of CW chick shows and eco-friendly crusader who meets with presidential hopefuls — and the guy he is — depressed and disappointing basketball player obsessed with scrutiny — is about as wide as Royal Gorge. THE BIG LEAD thinks he can snap out of it, but we’re not quite so sure.

All we know is that he better do something quick, or he could end up frequenting Arjuveda clinics in California and growing out a shamans beard like American Taliban John Walker Lind. That would be good for anyone, least of all Oden or Ricky Williams, who finally seems to be back on a productive, pot-free track. Took long enough for Ricky to get rolling again, didn’t it? Yet you still get the feeling that he could go off the tracks if he started getting compared to a depressed Greg Oden, don’t you?