9/5/2023 0 Comments Eddie griffinIn his year at Seton Hall, he punched out a teammate in the locker room.Īnd yet the Rockets traded the rights to their three first-round draft picks (Jason Collins, Richard Jefferson and Brandon Armstrong) to get Griffin's draft rights in 2001. Griffin also is a case study in the temptation of talent.īecause of a fight with a teammate, he had to finish high school by studying at home instead of going to class and walking across a stage to get his diploma. Youth and money and loads of unsupervised time were a toxic combination for him. Regardless, it was the wrong environment for someone so unstable. Maybe his problems were too serious for anyone in the league to deal with, even if teams' top priorities hadn't been making money and winning games. It's clear Griffin never learned to be responsible or accountable during his one year at Seton Hall or the six seasons he spent in the NBA. It's about making the transition to adulthood in a sheltered environment where the mistakes aren't as costly as they are in the real world. Griffin's failures should not be a reason to deny opportunities for those who are ready.īut they should serve as a warning, a reminder that the most important part of college isn't the course credits, it's the socialization. These are people who have stayed out of trouble, who seem capable of handling the extreme world of the NBA. I saw the other extreme over the weekend in Las Vegas, where young men with zero or one year of college experience such as LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Kevin Durant were gathered for the Team USA training camp. Was Eddie Griffin trying to kill himself when he drove his SUV past railroad gates and flashing lights and into the side of a moving freight train in Houston last week? It will likely be some time before an investigation is complete, just as it took more than four days to identify Griffin because his body was burned so badly in the fiery crash that dental records were required for identification.īut what we do know of Griffin is this: The stream of incidents, arrests and unsuccessful stints in rehabilitation centers allows us to list him as Exhibit A in the argument that just because you can enter the NBA, that doesn't mean you should.Īn ex-player I talked to Tuesday called Griffin "a perfect example of a kid who shouldn't have went to the NBA early." This is coming from a distance, words about a person I don't know well, about a death whose precise circumstances we don't yet know for sure. These are various thoughts and observations, prompted by a tragic story. Griffin's tragic life a story of talent and temptation You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
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