All he’s gotta do is turn around the LA Clippers… yikes. Read more from ESPN.com:
LAS VEGAS — They were there for Blake Griffin, and they didn’t even get to see him play. Fans started lining up at an autograph booth in the Thomas & Mack Center concourse before the Los Angeles Clippers’ summer league game, and they stayed there until Griffin arrived some 20 minutes after the game ended, sat down and started signing jerseys, cards, basketballs, shirts and programs. The line extended past concession stands and entry portals, with more fans breaking ranks to get a glimpse of the Clippers’ No. 1 pick. A team official said he’s never seen anything like it for one of their players at summer league.
This is different.
And this goes against everything I’ve learned since the Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and provided us with a quarter-century’s worth of bad draft picks, loafing centers, point guards on 10-day contracts taking last-second shots, and Donald Sterling’s ownership serving as the lone constant, but I believe Griffin can change this team.
If he does, if he turns the Clippers into regular playoff residents instead of occasional visitors, he’ll go down as one of the greatest No. 1 picks ever. That’s the magnitude of the challenge, and that’s how monumental that accomplishment would be.
There have been other moments of hope: the “Space Cowboys” group of past-their-peaks Norm Nixon, Cedric Maxwell and Marques Johnson; the head-pounding young squad of Quentin Richardson, Darius Miles, Elton Brand and Lamar Odom; and the team that got to within a game of the Western Conference finals. You don’t need to be an NBA historian to know how those promising stories ended. Just look at the upper reaches of the Staples Center. You won’t find a single piece of Clippers fabric. No retired jerseys, not even so much as a division championship banner.
When the Clippers won the draft lottery and selected Griffin with the top pick, I didn’t think this one would turn out any different. It would be just the Clippers’ luck to go first in what’s viewed as a weak draft. They never get this chance when there’s a Shaq or a LeBron to be had.
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