Oden's light touch

ORLANDO-During media availability this afternoon, Greg Oden put aside his stoic on-court demeanor and revealed a humorous side that should only make him marketable and more embraceable. He joked about sitting in the same room with three Florida players (Corey Brewer, Al Horford and Joakim Noah), pitched an off-beat idea for a shoe commercial and modestly assessed his own skills. Sticking with the modest approach, he also refused to view the 2007 NBA draft as the Oden-Kevin Durant show.

‘‘It’s just me and Durant getting all the attention,’’ said Oden. ‘‘That’s really all that happens, but when you get here and see all the other guys, you know there are a lot of players here and a lot of good people here who are going to be in the draft. It’s not just about me and Kevin. We know we’ve got a lot of competition.’’ ...

Doc Rivers chatted briefly after the morning session at the pre-draft camp, reporting that he hears good things about Paul Pierce. ‘‘I’ve talked to Paul about three days before the lottery,’’ said Rivers shortly before the first of two daily sessions of the Orlando pre-draft camp concluded today.

‘‘I think he’s good. After the season we had, everyone needed distance. We needed to exhale from that. That was something I hope never happens to anybody. He’s good. He’s been working. He looks great right now. He’s been working his [butt] off. For the first time in his life, Paul was not in shape [after being injured last season] and that scared the [expletive] out of him and that’s good for us.’’