Two Philly N'paper Takes on EG

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/7279829.htm

Posted on Mon, Nov. 17, 2003

For Eddie Griffin, a career in limbo
By Joe Juliano
Inquirer Staff Writer

This is the day that the family, friends and fans of Eddie Griffin dreamed about. They thought that they would be celebrating his return to his hometown for a game against the 76ers, the team he followed in his childhood.

However, when the Houston Rockets hit the court tonight at the Wachovia Center, Eddie Griffin won't be with them. He won't be with them for the foreseeable future. And there is a chance that he might never be with them again.

Griffin, 21, a graduate of Roman Catholic High School, is at an undisclosed facility in the Houston area, receiving treatment to deal with what a representative called "emotional problems." He has been there about three weeks.

"He's bright and a great talent, but he's had trouble coping with life in the NBA," Rusty Hardin, Griffin's Houston-based attorney, said Friday. "His biggest priority now is to get his life in order.

"We're not even thinking of getting back on the court. If he does get back on the court, it means he's in good shape."

For now, Griffin is on the suspended list after a tumultuous preseason during which he missed a team flight and skipped practices.

However, it wasn't until after an incident at his home in southwest Houston that Griffin decided to seek professional help. A 21-year-old female acquaintance alleged that he struck her and shot at her early on the morning of Oct. 25. The case remains under investigation by Houston police, and no charges had been filed as of yesterday.

The Rockets elected not to pick up the fourth-year option on the contract that the 6-foot-10 forward signed as a physically gifted 19-year-old rookie in 2001. So instead of Griffin's collecting a guaranteed salary of $2.93 million for next season, he will be a free agent as of July 1 - a free agent with an uncertain future.

"We're not happy with the situation," Jeff Van Gundy, the Rockets' new coach, told the Houston Chronicle last month. "But, really, I don't have a lot of time to think about who's not here. I think about him, and I think about him a lot. He's a likable guy."

This is not the first time that Griffin's emotions have submerged his talent and potential. A shy young man with an impassive expression on the court, he was involved in two highly publicized fighting incidents, one while at Roman, the other while at Seton Hall University.

Hardin said that some of the problems now affecting Griffin center on his inability to communicate about issues.

"Part of his treatment is getting him to open up and talk about things," Hardin said. "If you take a young man and put him in this environment, he's going to internalize and bottle up any problems he may have.

"He's a really nice kid, but he's pretty confused right now. With kids that you pluck out of college as 19-year-olds and thrust into the NBA, some don't adjust very well. He's had some problems coping with this stuff."

In his senior season at Roman, he won the Markward Award as the city's best high school player and was named The Inquirer's player of the year. But he also was expelled from school for fighting with a teammate. He received his diploma but did not participate in graduation ceremonies.

Then, in his only season at Seton Hall, Griffin punched a teammate, Ty Shine, after a loss to Georgetown in January 2001. The Pirates, despite boasting a highly touted freshman class, finished 15-14 that season, and fingers pointed to Griffin as he left to enter the NBA draft.

"That was terribly unfair," said Tommy Amaker, then the coach at Seton Hall and now the coach at Michigan. "Unfortunately, that situation occurred. It made big news and hung over us the entire season. But to place the blame on Eddie's shoulders is grossly unfair."

Amaker said that Griffin's choice of Seton Hall over a bevy of national powers showed that "he liked to step away from the mainstream."

"Eddie is not a follower," Amaker said. "He does things that may be a little different. I loved his disposition. He was always the same on the floor, an easygoing person. Everyone always spoke of him in glowing terms."

Villanova assistant Fred Hill, who was on Amaker's staff at Seton Hall during Griffin's season there, called Griffin "the most coachable kid I've ever coached" and said that he showed a commitment to making himself a better player. But he also noted that Griffin had difficulty sharing his feelings.

"Eddie was a very quiet kid," Hill said. "He wasn't very communicative. He didn't open up to other people. Having dealt with him, what would happen is that Eddie would internalize things, keep them to himself."

Athletically, Griffin, who led the nation in blocked shots at Seton Hall while averaging 17.8 points and 10.8 rebounds, was on the fast track. And though his maturity hadn't caught up to his talent, he opted against spending another season with the Pirates.

A little more than a month after Griffin's 19th birthday, the New Jersey Nets made him the seventh pick in the 2001 NBA draft, then traded his rights to the Rockets on draft night for the rights to the three first-rounders they had picked - Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins and Brandon Armstrong. Griffin later signed a three-year, $6.96 million contract.

Rudy Tomjanovich, the Rockets' coach at the time, and team officials thought that they had made the steal of the draft. Griffin showed flashes of brilliance in his rookie season. He averaged 8.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.8 blocks and became the first NBA rookie to average at least one blocked shot and one three-point basket per game.

The learning curve continued last season, when Griffin started 66 games and averaged 8.6 points and six rebounds. But concern surfaced in April, when Houston police said that they had found a small amount of mar1juana in Griffin's car during a traffic stop. That case is still pending in court.

Griffin's conduct in the preseason this year perplexed team officials. He missed a team flight to Sacramento for an Oct. 14 game and never called the team to explain why. Van Gundy responded with a two-game suspension but gave him permission to practice.

Griffin said that he had missed the flight to deal with "personal family problems." But he failed to attend practice the day after the team returned from Sacramento, and Van Gundy suspended him indefinitely. Griffin also missed an Oct. 24 workout set up for him while the team was in San Antonio.

Rockets management has been mum about Griffin since he began undergoing treatment. But Rockets guard Cuttino Mobley, a fellow Philadelphian, supports him.

"Everybody loves Eddie," Mobley told the Houston Chronicle. "He's going to do what he has to do. Right now, we're concentrating on winning. He's concentrating on what he has to do. He's a good kid. We love him."

Griffin is said to be dealing with his issues. Hardin said that he does not expect him to be back until after Jan. 1, but that returning to the NBA is not Griffin's main focus at the moment.

"I'm sure he will play, but that depends on how he feels and how the Rockets feel," Hardin said. "Right now, we're not thinking about that. Eddie realizes the last thing to be concerned about is basketball. He wants to get his life in order."




http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/7281249.htm

Posted on Mon, Nov. 17, 2003

The troubling tale of Eddie Griffin
Friends hope ex-Roman star can resolve personal problems
By BERNARD FERNANDEZ
fernanb@phillynews.com

HOUSTON - He has been charged with mar1juana possession and involved in an incident that sent a woman to a medical center for treatment. He, in fact, checked himself into a hospital late last month and continues to undergo therapy for an undisclosed problem.

Yet his tale hasn't drawn the interest of camera crews from "Entertainment Tonight'' and CNN. Heck, it barely has merited the occasional mention on ESPN. Eddie Griffin, the third-year Houston Rockets forward, is flying well below the national radar in comparison to a more celebrated former Philadelphia-area high school phenom, the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant. One observer here even went so far as to describe Griffin's recent suspension from the Rockets - another ink blot on an underachieving career that has lost much of its luminescence - as "Kobe Light."

Obviously, the 6-10 Griffin won't be in the lineup or even in Philadelphia for tonight's game between the Rockets and the 76ers at the Wachovia Center. But he remains in the thoughts and prayers of those who know him well. Or, at least, those who have been around him long enough to think they know him well.

"Everything that's going on is just shocking to me," says Griffin's former teammate at Roman Catholic, Mike Wild, now at Holy Family College. "I can't even imagine Eddie being involved in anything like I'm reading about. I read it, but, knowing him, it doesn't register."

Adds Michigan coach Tommy Amaker, who was the coach at Seton Hall during Griffin's only season there: "The Eddie that I know and care about and think the world of, I just believe he still has a bright future. That Eddie is a wonderful human being. I would coach him all over again if I ever had the good fortune to do so."

But the quiet, good-natured Griffin described in such glowing terms by Wild, Amaker and others appears to be in conflict with the obviously troubled Griffin who was suspended indefinitely Oct. 16 by Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy for "conduct detrimental to the team" after he missed a flight to a preseason game in Sacramento and blew off four workouts. Griffin, 21, has yet to suit up for a regular-season game, and, in light of the fact the Rockets allowed the Oct. 31 deadline to pass without picking up his $2.93 million option for the 2004-05 campaign, there is some question whether he ever will wear a Rockets uniform again.

More significantly, there is the matter of an early-morning confrontation on Oct. 25 that Griffin had with a 21-year-old woman, Joann Romero, at his southwest Houston residence. She told police that Griffin punched her, and she was treated for what one police officer described as serious facial injuries. Romero also said that Griffin twice fired a handgun at her car as she drove away.

Griffin has not been charged in connection with the incident, and the police only would say that "the investigation is proceeding."

Attempts to reach Griffin's family from previous numbers in Philadelphia and through his attorney, Rusty Hardin, were unsuccessful. Hardin did not return calls for comment.

Griffin's latest, and most serious, detour from the superstardom that had been predicted for him would be of grave concern if it were a stand-alone incident. But he has been in trouble before: at Roman, at Seton Hall and now with the Rockets.

Even before his confrontation with Romero and the suspension, Griffin was charged in April with mar1juana possession. His hearing on the charge, scheduled for last month, has been delayed.

As a senior at Roman, he was expelled before the completion of his senior year as a result of a study-hall fight with a teammate, Marques Gantt. He was allowed to graduate after completing course work with a tutor and participating in an anger-management class.

"When you get kicked out of a school, it really puts you on the spot," Griffin said after he belatedly received his diploma from Roman. "You think, 'People are gonna expect me to fall off. I have to show them I can succeed.' "

Not that a fistfight between teenagers sent up many warning flares among college recruiters whose only concern about Griffin was that he might jump immediately to the NBA, where he likely would have been a lottery pick coming out of high school.

Roman coach Dennis Seddon said the comparisons being made at the time between Griffin and the NBA's more-established players put incredible pressure on a kid still trying to find his way in the game and in life.

"Somebody asked me to compare him with Tim Duncan," Seddon said at the time. "I told the guy, 'Instead of saying he's the next Tim Duncan or David Robinson, how about we call him the first Eddie Griffin? Let's let him make his own mark. He's very capable of doing that.' "

Griffin put up exemplary numbers at Seton Hall, averaging 17.8 points, 10.8 rebounds and 4.4 blocks, and he was named best freshman in the nation by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and The Sporting News. But the young and talented Pirates, featuring such other hotshot freshmen as Andre Barrett, Marcus Toney-El and Damion Fray, were a disappointing 16-15 and lost in the first round of the NIT. Along the way, Griffin got into another fight, this time with teammate Ty Shine in the locker room.

Perhaps the lure of NBA dollars prompted Griffin's departure from Seton Hall after that one season. Perhaps it was the fact that Amaker left for Michigan, or because Griffin's older half-brother and mentor, Marvin Powell, died suddenly of a heart attack at 34, leaving a wife and three children.

"They were very close," Seddon says of Griffin's relationship with Powell. "Marvin is the guy who brought Eddie to Roman and got him enrolled. Marvin was not just an older brother; he was sort of a father figure to Eddie. His passing had a tremendous effect on him. Marvin left behind kids, and Eddie felt a responsibility to provide for them."

Seddon speculates whether Powell's death might have triggered a profound sadness in Griffin that in some way has led to his most recent missteps. It should be noted, however, that Griffin's expulsion from Roman and his scuffle with Shine predated Powell's death.

"I can only speak from my personal experience, but I never had any problems with Eddie," Seddon says.

"They say hindsight is 20-20. If you go back, you can possibly see a pattern [of disturbing conduct]. The thing at Roman, the school has a zero-tolerance policy and it was enforced. It doesn't matter who you are, if you break that policy, you're gone. Someplace else, there might have been a suspension or maybe detention. At Roman, they get rid of the problem right away.

"Personally, I think outside influences contributed to the situation. Along with the plaudits come the piranha. All of a sudden, you have 'friends' you didn't even know existed. It is a lot for a kid to handle. Sometimes people on the outside don't have a clue to the pressures that are brought to bear on a young man like Eddie."

Amaker agrees, to a point.

"He's accustomed to having great expectations attached to anything he does on a basketball court," Amaker says of Griffin's continual struggle to rise to those expectations. "Unless you've walked in those shoes, it's impossible to imagine what it's like to be the No. 1 high school player in the country, someone who is supposed to play great every night. Most people have no idea how stressful that can be.

"There's some quality to Eddie, as a human being. It's not just his talent as a basketball player. But you need more than talent to succeed in this game, and we've seen that he has those intangible qualities that are so important to success. Eddie Griffin is a person who, when you look deep and you get to really know him, you realize you're not taking a chance. You're making an investment."

Others weren't so sure Griffin was a can't-miss pro. Before the 2001 NBA draft, one wary team executive said that Griffin "played at a slow rate of speed. He has a tendency to not play hard. But his talent and potential can't be denied."

That talent was so obvious that, when the New Jersey Nets selected Griffin with the seventh choice overall, the Rockets didn't hesitate to pry him away with a king's ransom of three No. 1 picks.

Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson says Griffin's ability made him worth the high price they paid to acquire him. "He's as talented as he can be," Dawson says. "But it's not just about talent, is it? It's about what's going on in his head and where he is emotionally.

"He's one of the best shot-blockers we've seen since [Hakeem] Olajuwon was here, and he just turned 21. Some players don't really develop until they're 24 or 25. Will Eddie be here then? I don't really know."

Dawson says he never was unduly alarmed by incidents in Griffin's past.

"You can't find anyone in or out of this league who hasn't ever had a problem of some sort, at some time," he says. "Eddie wasn't one of the guys we brought in [for a private workout and interview] because he wasn't expected to be available in the part of the draft where we were picking, but we were able to trade up. Still, we knew about him and had scouted him thoroughly. We were ecstatic to get him.

"Now, everybody wants me to say, 'Didn't you anticipate something like this, given his history?' No. There's a lot of things that happen with players in this league you don't expect to happen. When we made the trade, everybody thought we were geniuses. Now everybody is second-guessing us."

In Houston, the consensus among those who cover the Rockets is that Dawson and Van Gundy's predecessor, Rudy Tomjano-vich, made a major misjudgment when they chose to hold onto Griffin and Maurice Taylor and to trade Kenny Thomas, who is now the Sixers' starting power forward.

The Rockets' decision to pass on Griffin's option for next season is not a guarantee he won't be back; it only means they could try to re-sign him at a lower price. He could even return this season to a team that is trying to make do at power forward with retreads and spare parts. With Griffin and Taylor (serving a 10-game suspension for a repeat violation of the NBA's substance-abuse policies) unavailable, Van Gundy has been starting reserve center Kelvin Cato at power forward, backed by the no-name likes of Torraye Braggs and Alton Ford. None has anywhere close to Griffin's upside.

Rockets guard Cuttino Mobley, another Philly guy who prepped at Cardinal Dougherty, is convinced Griffin will return to the lineup and make a contribution before this season is over.

"Nothing lasts forever, and Eddie will get over this rough time in his life at some point," Mobley says. "I'm pretty sure he'll straighten out whatever it is he has to straighten out. Before you know it, he'll be back on the floor and blocking shots."

Van Gundy was hired as coach in the offseason and brought with him a reputation as a no-nonsense disciplinarian. His public statements suggest that he's not as certain that Griffin will find a role with the Rockets once he is released from the hospital.

"He's a likable guy, and it's time he took a step forward to repay the people who put their faith in him," Van Gundy says. "I think he wants to do that. But time will tell by his actions. The NBA is littered with highly talented players that never lived up to expectations. I just think what separates players in this league is not so much talent, but attitude and chemistry, spirit and passion."

On that count, the jury is still out for Eddie Griffin.

 

Remind me, how old is he? Unless one plans to run for president by the time he/she is 12 we all deal with problems that if we were prominent enough would provoke headlines. Some more serious than others, but in large type look lousy enough!

EG has major league screwed up. At 21. He is a redeemable human. I am glad Philly still cares. I hope he does, too.

 

I posted these articles because I was interested in what EG's hometown was thinking about him. I thought it was worthwhile. I still do.

Assuming EG gets back to basketball where will he be able to best ply his trade? Houston? Philly? Milwaukee? Europe? I have no clue.

I just hope he survives the game of life. At least he hasn't been forgotten in his hometown.

 

I can't get worked up, at this point, whether EG remains a Rock, becomes a 6er, or goes wherever. I just don't want to read about him in the police reports or, worse yet, the obits.