As the NBA lottery concluded last night, one thought was reiterated across the NBA land:
It was nice knowing you Blake Griffin.
The consensus number one pick was sitting on a couch at the ESPN Zone in New York watching his fate played out in front of his eyes. Griffin didn't have much of a reaction when the Los Angeles Clippers won the lottery and the right to draft him, but fans know that Griffin is going from the ESPN Zone to the NBA equivalent of the Phantom Zone.
So is Griffin's future already ruined? Ruined, of course, is a relative term for a guy in his 
early 20's who is about to become a multi-millionaire because he's tall and can dunk a basketball, but if it's true that Griffin won't reach a state of NBA satiety until he holds a championship trophy, it could be a frustrating career for him.
Any other NBA team in the draft lottery top five had a tangible upside for Griffin. The Memphis Grizzlies are a bit of a disaster, but they have a backcourt in place with Mike Connely Jr. and O.J. Mayo, the Oklahoma City Thunder would have been the prime landing spot since it's Griffin's hometown and would allow him to form a top forward combo with superstar Kevin Durant, the Sacramento Kings have the crazy Maloof brothers who will do any thing to build the team back up, and the Washington Wizards are much better than their record indicated last year (injuries).The Clippers? They have some good young players in Al Thornton and Eric Gordon, plus they have Baron Davis who can be a top flight player when he wants to be. But that's the problem: the Clippers always seem to have good young players. Because they always suck and they always draft high. As good as the Los Angeles Lakers have been over the years, that's how bad the Los Angeles Clippers have been.
-The C
lippers franchise has never won a division title whether it was in Buffalo, San Diego, or L.A. The team has made the playoffs four times in the past 30 years and three of those times were quick first round exits.
-The team has had a top three draft pick 11 times and have picked such gems as Michael Olowokandi and Danny Ferry (who refused to play for the Clippers).
-The best players in Clippers history, Bob Macadoo, Andrian Dantely, and Bill Walton aren't generally recognized as Clippers (Macadoo won with the Lakers, Dantely with the Pistons, and Walton with the Trailblazers and Celtics).
-Since moving to Los Angeles, the Clipper have had two winning seasons. TWO. And the franchise has never won more than 50 games.
You get the point. Blake Griffin may be a very talented and hard working player, but his early years in the NBA could be very rough as he deals with a franchise more synonymous with losing than any other in professional sports.
Maybe the talent will come together and the Clippers will become a dangerous young team. If not, the best Griffin can do is work hard and polish up his resume as he looks forward to his first day of freedom in free-agency. Until then, he can send us postcards from the netherworld.
I really hate press conferences. They waste more sports time than almost any other activity.
There are some occasions where a press conference makes sense, but teams seem to live in some chimerical world where fans are actually interested in every possible thing an athlete has to say (which is often little).
The latest offender? The University of Oklahoma.
They announced a press-conference yesterday where superstar basketball man Blake Griffin would declare his intentions next year.
Let's see, he's the current player of the year and he's widely considered to be one of the top picks in the draft ensuring him millions of dollars.
Hmmmm. What is he going to pick?
So then Griffin does what we all knew he was going to do and declares for the draft. He says how much he has enjoyed college, but is ready for a bigger challenge....stop me if you've heard this before.
I don't need to stop down for a press conference to tell me what I already know. Griffin could have easily released a statement saying everything he needed to say. And the media's time would not have been wasted.
As a fan of the sport that is sports, I'd like to give a simple little guide to press conferences. Please feel free to add your own personal comments if you feel a detail needs to be included.
Okay
for press conference:
A sports legend retires: When Shaq retires, I'm fine with a press conference. It's the end of an era for the NBA. Same goes with a Peyton Manning or Martin Brodeur. The team changes significantly when they leave.
On the flip side, I don't need to see a press conference if Stephon Marbury decides to retire.
A shocking announcement is made: Michael Jordan retiring for the first time falls into the category. Ricky Williams up and leaving football shocked us all. Magic Johnson announcing he has the HIV. Those are worth a press conference.
Th
e team gets a new major player: whether it's through the draft or free-agency, big signings excite the fans and they want to meet their new superstar. I don't need a press-conference for a backup left guard, but I'd like to see the number one draft pick. Of course if the team in question is the Oakland Raiders, the number one draft pick may end up being the backup guard.
That's really all you need a press conference for. I guess some people might like the weekly conference that involves a game where the tight lipped coach begrudgingly gives information as media members attempt to word questions in a way that will trap the coach into either telling the truth or lying through his teeth. It occasionally gives us some audio gold when a coach blows up at a media question.
All the other press conferences are unneeded. Here are some particularly bad abusers of the uneeded press gathering:
A high school athlete announcing his college choice: High school football playe
rs are out of control with this issue. I'm tired of seeing some 17 year old kid call a press conference where he starts playing three card monte with some hats until he finally puts one on as his family cheers. I played high school football, can I dick around with some hats at a press conference? Completely uneeded.An athlete announcing something we all already knew: See Blake Griffin. I don't need to hear a 20 minute conference that I could probably repeat out loud without even attending.
Corpora
te deals: Jerry Jones is particularly bad at this. I don't need to hear a press conference about a corporate partnership which will bring in more money to the already rich owner. That's just plain annoying.
Sports figures have leeway right now to call press conferences whenever they see fit. But maybe they should read The Boy Who Cried Wolf once or twice because if they keep abusing the media gatherings, they may find out that no one shows up in the future.
I bet my sports heart would go on.
As the NBA lottery concluded last night, one thought was reiterated across the NBA land:
early 20's who is about to become a multi-millionaire because he's tall and can dunk a basketball, but if it's true that Griffin won't reach a state of NBA satiety until he holds a championship trophy, it could be a frustrating career for him.
lippers franchise has never won a division title whether it was in Buffalo, San Diego, or L.A. The team has made the playoffs four times in the past 30 years and three of those times were quick first round exits.
