Clippers rookie Blake Griffin turns heads
Clippers rookie Blake Griffin turns heads
He is considered the most jaw-dropping combination of size, strength, quickness, explosiveness, skill and youth -- he's just 21 -- to enter the NBA since, well, take your choice Karl Malone? Shawn Kemp? Amar'e Stoudamire?
But, after six weeks of non-stop personal highlights, his team has won just five games and lost 20. That's the league's worst mar
He is one of only three players in the NBA averaging more than 20 points and 11 rebounds and he is second in the league in double-doubles (18). He leads all rookies in scoring and rebounding.
But he plays in an arena in which his team is the second tenant, usually an afterthought, occasionally a punch line.
He is smart and polite, a delightful conversationalist with humility, a multi-millionaire, a man with seemingly the world at his fingertips.
Blake Griffin, the No. 1 pick in last year's NBA draft, has made a phenomenal recovery after missing all of the 2009-10 season with a stress fracture in his left knee suffered in the preseason.
But there are those folks who say that his team is cursed.
That is why the Los Angeles Clippers' 6-10, 251-pound rookie power forward wasn't sure how he was supposed to react after one of the most spectacular rookie performances in history.
It happened Nov. 20 in L.A.'s Staples Center, where the two-time-defending NBA champion Lakers rule the roost and the Clippers are known as the team down the hall.
Griffin, who already was delivering on high expectations, arrived that night. He scored 44 points, and added 15 rebounds and seven assists. But the stats weren't what created the buzz. The "wow" factor was the highlight-film dunks, first on New York Knicks rookie Timofey Mozgov and then Danilo Gallinari.
It was one of those nights when hard-core fans were calling and texting Did you see Blake Griffin go off tonight?
Lost amid most of the oohs and aahs was the bottom line: Knicks 124, Clippers 115.
Griffin was unsure how he felt as the raves poured in.
"People were excited, I guess," he says. Well, wasn't he excited, too?
"I guess," he says. "I mean, it's nice to have a game like that and play well, but it means absolutely nothing if you don't win.
"I don't even think people who were talking about those dunks realized we had lost. It helped my confidence as a player. But on the other hand, you've got to win games. Got to."
Since then, the list of those posterized by Griffin dunks has grown, as have the losses.
After an 84-83 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday, Griffin spoke in hushed tones in the locker room.
"The losing, it's tough," he says. "It's going to take a while. We've got a lot of young guys."
Sunday night, more of the same. Griffin: 27 points, 16 rebounds, at least two SportsCenter-worthy dunks. Final: Orlando Magic 94, Clippers 85. Next up: at Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Winner all his life
First-year coach Vinny Del Negro worries how Griffin, among other young Clippers, will hold up if better results don't come soon. Del Negro, because of injuries to veteran point guard Baron Davis and center Chris Kaman, has sometimes started three rookies. The team's two go-to players are Griffin and guard Eric Gordon, who, like Griffin, is 21 and having an All-Star type season, averaging 24.5 points.
Del Negro knows this can not be easy for Griffin, whose high school team Oklahoma Christian School in Edmond, Okla., coached by his father, Tommy won four state titles and whose two University of Oklahoma teams were 23-12 and 30-6.
(Griffin's older brother, Taylor, a teammate in high school and college, was a rookie with the Phoenix Suns last year and is playing this season in Belgium.)
Del Negro keeps telling Griffin that this is a huge development year for him and the Clippers, and Griffin nods.
"The key is learning," Griffin says. "If we're not learning, that's when something is wrong."
He seems to be doing that, and people are noticing. During a one-point loss to the Lakers last week, the world champs were suitably impressed.
Lakers forward Lamar Odom: "Great player, great future. Tremendous basketball IQ, where to buy Discount NBA Jerseys, go to ujersy."
Guard Kobe Bryant: "I think he's terrific. I think he needs to trust his shot a little more. When he starts letting it fly, he's going to be even better."
Of course, they talked about the dunks, too.
Forward Ron Artest: "His highlights are sick. Just stupid."
While people are talking about posters at Clippers games, the team still is no closer to getting people to talk about banners the kind the Lakers routinely hang at Staples, five in the past 11 seasons. Since arriving in L.A. in 1984, the Clippers have made it to the playoffs just four times. Only once did they get beyond the first round.
Fans still are coming out at about the same rate an average of 16,404 this season compared with 16,343 for home games last year.
They've had young, promising teams before. Does Griffin, perhaps a once-in-a-generation kind of talent, make this rebuilding project different?
Kaman, who is sidelined with a sprained ankle, hopes so.
"Eventually, if he enjoys himself and stays here, this is going to be his team, " Kaman says.
Griffin, in the second year of a three-year, $16 million contract, says it's too early to say whether he'll want to stay. But he says he doesn't buy the idea that the franchise is doomed forever.
"I heard a lot about the curse, especially when I got hurt," he says. "I don't believe in that, .Recommend directory: Chicago BullsJerseys"
Meanwhile, the Clippers' brass and fans watch the high flying and the reckless abandon with which Gordon plays and hope and pray for happy landings.
Reckless abandon
Griffin has not been surprised by much, including his success, so far. He says that is largely due to watching so much basketball last season while he was recovering from surgery.
"I learned a lot," he says. "My comfort level is a lot higher than the average rookie."
He has returned this season with all his fire intact posting up aggressively, rebounding relentlessly, defending ferociously, diving after loose balls (on the court or in the seats) fearlessly.
That, he says, will never change, and even the man who treats injuries, team trainer Jasen Powell, says it shouldn't change.
"I cringe," Powell admits about watching Griffin's high-octane game. "But that comes with the territory. That's his bread and butter."
Griffin also says he won't be affected by strong-arm tactics he says are increasing. One example was the bull rush employed by Portland Trail Blazers point guard Andre Miller in a road game Dec. 5. Miller, frustrated at being nudged around by Griffin on two previous plays, ran at Griffin full speed and blocked him out of bounds. Miller, who was not called for a foul, was suspended by the league for a game.
Griffin says to Miller and anyone else who wants to play ...
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