I don't usually root for individual players. That really isn't my style. Yes, I do have favorites, but I have always been a team guy. I like the TEAM and I don't really get too worked up over individual players. But, this guy is changing my mind. I was SCREAMING at the game for them to get the ball to Griffin when he was open. I just so want this kid to do well. EDDIE! EDDIE! EDDIE!
I find it almost impossible not to cheer for him. He is so good at only age 19 and goes about everything on the court in such a classy way. I reall enjoy the Moochie showtime act whenever he hits a game winning shot but there is nothing quite like Eddie doing his job the way he does it. He never complains or seems to get geeked after a big shot or a big play. He just seems so cool and collected on the court.
He had two huge rebounds late in the game. Even though Mooch hit a huge shot, Eddie was the most aggressive rebounder late and more importantly had the hands to haul them in. Without those boards it was over.
I hate that nickname of his. FAST EDDIE. Griffin has to be consistent till the end of the year if he wants a shot. Gasol I think is #1 right now.
Eddie is so cool out there and he's all about bidness. I love it! I think Larry Smith is having an influence on the guy.
If Eddie would have been getting playing time from the beginning of the season, the ROY race wouldn't be close right now. After seeing him play, I believe he was the best player in the draft. The Rockets have to be counting their blessings they were able to aquire him.
Eddie Griffin -- I LOVE this guy. I was at the game tonight and I was just screaming for him. He seemed to be everywhere on defense: key rebounds, key blocks, and key shots. He had his hands everywhere. EG is something special, and I'm going to love watching him for years.
I too was at the game tonight. I go nuts over every point Eddie scores and every shot he SWATS. EG is truly the man. I LOVE the guy.
Oh yea almost forgot about that ABSOLUTE BRUTAL REJECTION Griff had on Sprewell. My goodness....I lost my voice on that one.
Fran agrees: <i>Griffin rare rook, indeed By FRAN BLINEBURY Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle We can only wonder what Moochie Norris might decide to take off if he hits a last-second shot that truly means something. Say, in the playoffs. Or to pull the Rockets within 10 games of the .500 mark. There was Moochie, bare-chested and full of bravado, having stripped off his jersey as he strutted down half the length of the courtside press table to celebrate his 3-pointer heaved while the horn sounded that beat New York 88-86. Eight years after their epic struggle in the NBA Finals, this is what Rockets vs. Knicks has become -- a miniature RuPaul in low-cut sneakers taking the bows after a flashy closing number. Give Moochie and his friends their due, for they have struggled so mightily and so frequently this season. It was a special occasion if only because it wasn't one of the many times the Rockets have been rolled up like a pair of socks and stuffed into a drawer in another fourth quarter. One need look only to Saturday night against the Pacers for their freshest scars. This, however, was special for the one reason all of them are special these days. Because it was Eddie Griffin's next game. The 19-year-old rookie is now growing faster than the Rockets can draw pencil marks on the wall. Not just for the way he shoots the ball, but for the way he goes to the glass and gets the big rebounds. Not just for the way he hustles and defends his own man, but for the way he challenges virtually every shot and gets his hand on more than a few. This time it was 13 points, eight rebounds and a career-high six blocks that made his line leap out of the box score. But it is so much more than raw numbers that define Griffin. It is his poise, his presence on the floor, especially for one so young. On a roster full of preening peacocks, he is a simply a ballhawk. "I'm nervous before every game," Griffin said. "I have butterflies in my stomach and all that. The only way I can get past it is to go out and work hard." Yet he might as well be an Olympic ice skating champion for the way he appears to glide across the surface. Falling out of bed is easy. Jumping off the bow of a ship and hitting the ocean is easy. The way Griffin plays is as effortless, as instinctive as inhaling and exhaling. If there is a play to be made, he just makes it. "It's the thing that you saw in guys like Hakeem Olajuwon and Elvin Hayes," said coach Rudy Tomjanovich. "It's not like you draw up plays and tell them what to do. You don't have to draw up anything for players like that. They'll just find a way to get there and block the shot when it doesn't look like it's possible." Before Moochie went into his half-Monty act, Griffin was the reason you stayed in your seat for the last act of the show. When he wasn't stroking in a critical 3-pointer to tie the score at 77, he was asserting himself on the defensive backboard, cleaning up every miss by the Knicks and causing several of them. This was looking like another one of those games the Rockets were going to let slip through their grasp like a greased eel. They missed 10 of their first 15 shots in the fourth quarter, giving the tired, bedraggled, out-of-it Knicks a chance. Then along came Griffin on three straight New York possessions in the last two minutes: ·After Allan Houston missed a jumper, Othella Harrington grabbed the offensive rebound and went back up for a dunk. But Griffin rejected the shot with impunity. ·After a drive by Latrell Sprewell came up short on the left side, there was a tip-tip-tip battle for the ball under the basket until Griffin refused to give up on it and secured the rebound. ·Charlie Ward put up a jumper, and Griffin practically swallowed the rebound to protect the Rockets' one-point lead. Those were not rookie plays. Or at least not plays by your average rookie. "I know there are other coaches out there who might say the same thing about their kids, but I wouldn't trade him for any other rookie in the league," Tomjanovich said. "I almost don't want to say it because of how ridiculous it might sound, but if Hakeem was in his 20s when he came into the league and he winds up as the greatest shot-blocker in NBA history, this guy might someday go past that number," said Steve Francis. "He's 19." Yes, the Franchise has competition for that title, which will make the second half of the schedule worth watching for no other reason. To say you saw him when. "I knew I had to prove that I belonged," Griffin said. "It's not about trying to do one specific thing or work on this and then that. I'm trying to take it all in, just play the way I can, let everything come to me. "I like the situation. I'm getting comfortable. They're all making me feel so good. This is just the start." Which is really something to jump on a table and dance about.</i>
I don't think we've had articles like that written about anyone on this team except for Steve and Griffin. Not Taylor, not thomas, not Cat or Moochie. Why ? Because those first 2 are potential superstars and the others are role players, plain and simple.
They're good role-players, though. We've got our two superstars! Every team needs two superstars to have a chance at the finals, and we've got ours already! And they're surrounded by good role players - the second ingredient in team stardom. The bonus: They are all young. Now, if we could just get a few extra decent bench players... Good lord, this team is going to be fun to follow for the next decade...
Treeman said: We've got our two superstars! Every team needs two superstars to have a chance at the finals, and we've got ours already! And they're surrounded by good role players - the second ingredient in team stardom. I agree. Now if he'd just stick to the Rockets...
I agree we have our 2 stars, now if that one guys who THINKS he is a star would take a back seat, we would have something. DD
I was at the game too - it was soo much fun! The whole crowd was screaming EDDIE! EDDIE! EDDIE!!! everytime he made a shot, grabbed a rebound or blocked a shot in the fourth quarter. It was simply amazing. He turned around the whole game. Did ya'll notice that he also started some fast breaks as well? (The rockets ran much better tonight, btw) Perhaps the best way to communicate how exciting Eddie made this game? Eddie got the suits in the lower bowl standing up and cheering for the Rockets. We didn't have the mass exodus we usually have - everyone wanted to stay and see his next play. Steve is still the Franchise - Eddie is the Future. Go EDDIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What was funny was watching the game on Fox when Eddie had his sixth block. Bill Worrell practically had a stroke hollering "Griffin with his SIXTH BLOCK of the night!!!" Calvin was telling Bill to calm down, "You're heart's not gonne be able to take all this excitement, Bill!" You gotta love Bill and Calvin.
Eddie will change everything. It's not just that he's going to be great. It's that he's the addition that allows everyone around him to fit into a more suitable role in a more efficient system. 1. Takes pressure off the 5 even when he nominally plays the 3 or 4. Finding a 5 who can do what Eddie does is extremely hard. Finding a 5 who can do the things that Eddie can't take care of when he's on the court is much, much easier. For example, we can stop expecting Cato to be more than he is (although the competition from Eddie definitely puts pressure on Cato to do his job better). 2. Takes pressure off the other 3 or 4 who's on the court with him. Kenny has no range? Fine. Eddie can set those picks and take those shots instead. Mo can't block? Fine. Eddie can stay inside and take care of that. 3. Takes pressure off Mobley. It should be pretty clear by now that a team built around Francis and Mobley will never go far enough. Mobley will never be solid enough in consistency or judgment (about shot selection, passing, and a few other things Al Harrington could tell you about) to anchor a championship team. The Mobley critics are right about these things. But they're wrong to conclude that we should trade Mobley. He can play a role similar to the role Maxwell played on Hakeem's team. But to do that, we need a Hakeem-type (if not Hakeem-equivalent) player. We now have that player. 4. Frees up Francis. Without Griffin, Francis would have ended up carrying the whole team and eventually giving up and leaving or asking to be traded. With Griffin, Francis will be able to play the playmaker role in a system. Big difference. To have a real system (unless you have a superstar C, PF, and SF in one person, as we did with Hakeem), you need at least two multitalented players who can create matchup problems at their positions. That was true even of Jordan and Pippen. Yes, it's possible to do this with two in the frontcourt (Duncan and Robinson) or more rarely still, two in the backcourt (Thomas and Dumars). But those are the exceptions. The ideal anchors for a winning system are one in the back and one in the front. We have that now. I predict that as a result, Steve will stay, and we will be in the WCF (at least) many times in the next 2 to 10 years. The biggest systemic problem with the Rockets, IMHO, is all the crap we routinely jack up from long range -- sometimes without even looking for opportunities inside, sometimes with the clock running down because we looked inside and found zilch. We blow too many possessions that way to win games in the regular season, much less the playoffs. We will never go anywhere until we get rid of that mindset and start running plays consistently. With Eddie, we can create enough threats at different points on the floor -- inside as well as out -- to set the conditions for running a genuine and effective system.
I bet you $100 you will not find a Fran Blinebury article about Steve Francis like he just gave Eddie Griffin. Remember, Steve stole the throne from the only Rocket player that would give him quotes...Hakeem Olajuwon. Read it again...he called Steve one of the "preening peacocks." Although I thought that was actually a good metaphor by Fran, for once.
