Interesting note on the ESPN article - I was reading the comments, and was impressed by the comments being made there... for the most part they were appropriate and solemn, remembering a man who, despite his shortcomings as a player, was really well liked by his teammates and coaches. Kevin McHale was particularly close with Griffin, too. The ESPN commenters were for the most part not snark and poking fun at Griffen, who unfortunately will be most remembered for his inability to live up to his vast potential and his run-in with the law a few years back for "driving inattentive". I was kinda pleasantly surprised to see that.
With regards to his vast potential, the man could block shots and rebound like few players in the league when he was focused and playing his best, and had great range for a big man (capable of draining threes). Unfortunately too often as fans we forget the amount of focus that goes into being a great or even really good sports athlete, and that mental prowess is as important as physical skills. Eddie Griffin was too troubled to do that.
Anyway, I don't want to further eulogize Griffin; I wasn't a big fan of his, and his career was pretty meaningless to me as a NBA fan. It's just a shame when someone dies, most likely because of suicide (no one, no matter how drunk or high you are, drives into a moving train), at such a young age. But I didn't do a Josh Hancock post, and I wouldn't have done a Eddie Griffin post if not for one thing: It reminded me of an interesting Bolivian Mark story.
BM's mother worked for a world organization for many years. One day her boss took off to Poland on a business trip that would last about 10 days. Pretty normal for the guy, he traveled a lot on business.
About a week later, she got a call at work from the police. In Brazil. Her boss was dead, they told her.
It turns out they had found that he had been hit by a train while parked on the tracks getting it on with a prostitute.
BM's mom had the misfortune of having to rely to her boss' wife that while pretending to be on business in Poland, he had, in fact, been almost 4,000 miles away, messing around in Brazil. Not sure exactly how you relay that message. Hallmark doesn't make a card for that, do they?
Not to mention that his death almost certainly implied something more was going on - it seemed like a mob hit meant to look like an accident more than anything else. Who parks their car on train tracks?...
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I don't see much of a comparison between Hancock and Griffin other than they were both drunk at the time (they haven't said that about Griffin as of yet, but I'm sure that'll be the reasoning). I only say I don't see the comparison for a couple of reasons. Hancock was never supposed to be a "star" and to the best of my knowledge he didn't have run-ins with the law.
Griffin was one of the most promising players to come out of Philly in the last ten years. Some folks just can't overcome their own demons.
I read your article and I have to say it sounded very judgemental and heartless. You dont know what someone is going through, even if you have been there before it still doesn't mean you would handle the situation the same. I know this was written some time ago. I am hoping that you have grown up to understand that we all have our ups and downs and some people aren't always luckey enough to make it back from the downs. No life is meaningless, learn from someones mistakes or decisions. If you still have that same heartless thought pattern you need to look at yourself and make a decision to do better because you will never be completely happy in any area of your life if you look at life though judgmental eyes. I remind myself daily that I live in a glass house and it helps to keep me grounded.
You're right about Griffin as a prospect, he had tons of potential. He was the consensus number one in the draft after the college season ended. Really his career was like so many of those other high picks that year, he just didn't pan out.