By MATT "MONEY" SMITH
FOX Sports West and Prime Ticket
Jan. 19, 2011
LOS ANGELES - If you were able to quantify it somehow, you would be hard pressed to find more articles, radio conversations, round table discussions, statistical analysis or profile pieces on a single athlete not named Blake Griffin. Ask someone who works in the industry the last time they remember this sort of excitement around a single player, and you're likely to get 10 different answers.
Video: Artest wants Griffin's autograph
Video: Kevin Love vs. Blake Griffin
Video: Griffin off the court
Money: No longer JUST a Lakers town
On the "Petros and Money Show" on Fox Sports Radio on Tuesday, we talked to Los Angeles Times national NBA writer Mark Heisler, and he went all the way back to the late '70s and Julius Erving. But he had to qualify that by saying Blake is even more exciting than Dr. J was, declaring him the most entertaining player he has ever watched play the sport of basketball.
Many have made the Shawn Kemp comparisons, thanks to the power dunks coming from the power forward position. Others say LeBron James because of the tremendous athleticism in such a large package, but James is more of a creator while Blake is a finisher.
Others are most impressed by Griffin's build, suggesting it reminds them of Karl Malone's muscle mass, that strength is his greatest attribute. Thanks to his innate ability to get off the floor, there are also a lot of Charles Barkley mentions. Still others use a contemporary, Amar'e Stoudemire, because of the size/skill combination. By alluding to so many different names when trying to describe what Griffin reminds us of makes him the first "Blake Griffin," and that's the biggest compliment you can pay to any player, let alone a rookie.
We have had super athletes come into the league with considerable hoopla who are 6-foot-8 and taller, but they lack the mass Griffin has to bang around the basket and impose their will once they leap into the air. Just since 2000, let's not forget all the excitement surrounding top-four overall picks Tyrus Thomas, Stromile Swift and Derrick Favors. Favors can still develop into something special but the first two are exactly what they were when they came into the league: players who are more athletic than the average at their position, but little else.
When I'm booked as a guest to talk basketball on local shows around the country and Griffin is mentioned, I'm likely the only person to bring up Michael Jordan. Some react as though I had just suggested Stieg Larsson is right in step with Charles Dickens. But once they hear me out, I like to think they understand where I'm coming from.
I grew up a Bulls fan in the south suburbs of Chicago. I'm too young to have seen the Jerry Sloan/Bob Love era, so as a young child the Bulls I cheered for consisted of Artis Gilmore, Ronnie Lester, Dave Corzine, Quintin Dailey and a man I even forced my mother to drag me out to the River Oaks Ford/Mercury dealership to meet while he was making an appearance, Orlando Woolridge. In the early '80s, I can say with great certainty, I was the only Bulls fan in my entire neighborhood. Understand the Cubs were challenging in the National League, the Sox were winning ugly, the Bears had Walter Payton and the Blackhawks had Denis Savard.
Who in their right mind would pay a lick of attention to the Chicago Bulls?
For all the "Chicago fans are the best in the country" conversations, that simply wasn't the case when it came to NBA basketball. In a city with five professional franchises, the Bulls were fifth by a mile until the 1984-85 season. Jordan's arrival came with little celebration the day he was drafted. Those who paid close attention to college basketball knew Jordan had a shot to be special, but not 28 points, six rebounds and six assists per game special.
The Cubs had just come off a heartbreaking loss in the National League Championship Game to the Padres, and the Bears looked like a favorite to win the Super Bowl, yet here was a forlorn franchise trampling all over the prime sporting real estate in town. It wasn't just the papers, radio and TV that was paying attention. Jordan took over every sporting conversation in the city. The ones being had while sucking back a beer at the bar that had no name, just a lighted sign out front that announced "Old Style on tap." Instead of Reaganomics and Harold Washington, the topic of conversation at the dinner table was, "Do you think Jordan is actually flying when he jumps?"
Griffin has done for the Clippers what Jordan did for the Bulls: He has made them relevant.
Here in Los Angeles, I would rank the passion prior to his arrival surrounding that franchise behind the Lakers, Dodgers, USC football, UCLA basketball, UCLA football, Angels and Kings. The only team I might give them a nod over is the Anaheim Ducks.
With Griffin, there in no question that has changed. The Lakers are the two-time defending NBA champions and have one of the 10 greatest players of all-time, yet we're more focused on the Clippers because we can't get enough Griffin.
For all the bad choices the Clippers have made (Google search "Clippers draft history"), the fact Griffin was the clear choice as the No. 1 overall pick in 2009 was as big a basketball blessing as the Portland Trail Blazers selecting Sam Bowie over Jordan was for the Bulls in 1984.
After missing 2009-10 because of injury, Griffin has produced more highlights in the first half of this season than that franchise has seen in a decade. In a city that has declared the Clippers an afterthought for nearly three decades, one single player in only 40 games has made them the topic of sporting conversation.
Matt "Money" Smith can be heard Monday-Friday on The Petros and Money Show on FOX Sports Radio's KLAC-AM 570 from 3 pm to 7 pm (PT).
