http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2729245 NBA suspends T-Wolves' Griffin for five games Eddie Griffin of the Minnesota Timberwolves has been suspended for five games without pay for violating the NBA's anti-drug program, the league announced Friday. The suspension was slated to begin Friday night when the Timberwolves were scheduled to play the Memphis Grizzlies. Griffin has averaged only seven minutes per game this season.
Next time he scores 20 points (if that ever happens again), somebody be sure to start yet another thread about why we shouldn't have traded him and what he could be doing as a Rocket. The same goes for Stromile Swift, though it isn't fair to put him in EG's category.
The Rockets are idiots for letting him go. He would look REALLY good in a Rockets uni. Sincerely, DaDakota...
Eddie Griffin's basketball career in a nutshell..... <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0pICWLzoArU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0pICWLzoArU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
It's still a violation of the league's substance abuse policy. I'm down with the ganja, but there is plenty of time in the offseason to toke up. Besides, his NBA career will probably be over in a year or two anyways, so he'll have even more time to smoke...
Eddie Griffin is a chump. He hurt our franchise. The only thing I hope is that somehow he can get his life together.
Not really. He wasn't overly athletic and his skills were overrated. He was a streaky jumpshooter who could block a few shots but couldn't guard anyone man-to-man. Basically, at best, he would have been Donyell Marshall. People equate potential with being drafted highly too often. When did Griffin ever show anything else other than hitting OPEN 3 pt shots on offense? Did he ever shutdown opposing PFs? All he did on defense was block a few shots on help defense. Griffin was overrated out of high school, which led to him being overrated in college and in the draft which begat him being overrated by Rockets fans.
Griffin as a freshman: 17.8 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 4.4 BPG Oden as a freshman: 14.9 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 3.9 BPG Granted, Ohio State is obviously better this year than Seton Hall was and Oden is playing with an injured hand but I still think you get the point that your statement about Griffin being overrated in college is off. The talent and potential was there and Griffin's numbers as a freshman in college were outstanding, it was just his character issues that kept him from being maybe the second player taken overall (since we all knew since MJ touted Kwame so highly, he was going #1). The bottom line with Griffin is that he had superstar potential and let his own lack of motivation, desire and discipline to kill him as a player. Instead of showing up ready to work hard and get better he chose to party and disregard his conditioning. His minutes steadily declined over the course of his career due to this as coaches began to realize he couldn't be trusted in a rotation. He used to be a very skilled post player for such a young age and used to move so smoothly. His combination of length, athleticism, post skills and shotblocking could have made him a 20/10/2 type of player. Instead of focusing on improving his post game be basically became a soft p***y that fell in love with the three -- and shot it pretty poorly, not to mention. He's a complete waste of talent and should be used as an example to all young players entering the league of what could happen without proper guidance and discipline. It's sad, but there are greater tragedies in the world.
I think Griffin either led the nation in blocked shots or was 2nd and was in the top 3 or 5 rebounders in the nation in his lone year at Seton Hall. What exactly do you consider "not being overrated"? Griffin's problem was that he was a 19 year old kid playing against men in the NBA. He had a body to fill out, and skills to learn, but his career was screwed up before that could be done. The talent was there to be much more than he has turned out to be.
