Re: Nets: Griffin kept his faith on long, difficult road to the pros

[opi@unesco.org]

Hi Kevin:

Nice article on Griffin. Thanks for finding it and posting it. It's amazing to read that
Griffin was cut by a team in the Philippines! I'm also surprised to hear that CBA
players only earn 1,300 dollars per month (even the MVP) over the 6 month season.

FWIW, a guy who now works in my office here used to play scoring point guard (27ppg) on
the rival high school team of Chucky Atkins.  They both got invited to the big
basketball camps and to play with Chris Webber and the like. It's hard to believe Atkins
and Amaechi have turned into such successful players. Griffin also needs to get back on
track.

Considering that we have a game tonight against Bird's Pacers, it's surprising that
Pitino didn't give any bench player more than 18 minutes last night.

Does anyone know why Potapenko didn't start and was the 9th player to get off the bench
(12 total minutes)? What a great strategy to start a headless chicken at center, since
Waltah and company were able to contain the Nets to just 46 points in the freaking first
quarter!

The entire Celtics bench contributed 2 assists last night. Anderson, Griffin and Walker
combined for just 4 more. That's pathetic.

Joe

****

kevin lok wrote:

> Very nice article on AD. Incidentally I watched the Magic/Pacers game few days ago
> on TV, guess who played the hardest? Yep ex-CBA players, C Atkins, D Armstrong and
> Bo Outlaw. Pitino should stock his 11-14th man with CBA refugees, who appears to
> appreciate the NBA much more than those drafted players.
>
> > Nets: Griffin kept his faith on long, difficult road to the pros
> > 02/08/00
> > By Don Burke
> > STAFF WRITER
> > Six months ago, Adrian Griffin harbored no illusions.
> > A veteran of three CBA seasons, all he wanted was to somehow latch on with the
> > Boston Celtics Summer League team. On Saturday, the former Seton Hall star, now a
> > full-fledged member of the Celtics, will participate in the NBA's Rookie All-Star
> > Game.
> > He will not go alone. Griffin will be the first to tell you that he accomplished
> > none of this by himself. His wife, Audrey, seven months pregnant with the couple's
> > second child, will be in the first-class seat alongside him.
> > Right where she has been all along.
> > "She's been my hero," said Griffin, who will be in uniform tonight when the
> > Celtics meet the Nets for the second time in five nights, this time at Continental
> > Airlines Arena. "All the things she's done for us, all the sacrifices she's made.
> > She's been real supportive."
> > An athlete herself, Audrey Griffin ran the quarter mile and the 800 for Seton
> > Hall's track team. In between practice and classes and studies, she raised their
> > daughter, Vanessa, now two, while Adrian was in Avon, Conn., playing for the CBA's
> > Connecticut Pride.
> > "Anybody will tell you that to run track and be a student is hard work," Griffin
> > said. "But to have a daughter to raise and take care of the apartment and
> > everything. And, on top of that, she'd come visit me in Connecticut on the
> > weekends. Sometimes she'd do it just for a night. Then she'd go back to school and
> > start all over again. She did that for two years.
> > "It was rough on both of us. But I think it made us and our relationship stronger.
> > We got married young and the time apart gave us time to grow up and appreciate the
> > little things. It's definitely made us closer."
> > Now making the NBA minimum of $385,000, Griffin remembers those days -- and not
> > too fondly -- when he had a salary of $1,300 a month.
> > "Those were tough times for us," he said. "I'd be here all day telling you
> > stories. In the summertime, it would get tough. The CBA was over in
> > five-and-a-half or six months. There were six more months (to the year) and I had
> > a wife and a baby. So the money would usually run out the first couple of months
> > of the summer.
> > "I don't know how we got through it. I know it was a blessing, that God was always
> > with us. There were times when we were broke, when we didn't have a dime. The Lord
> > would always be there and bless us with help from our families. Her mom. My
> > parents. We got through it somehow."
> > The last few months have been a blur to Griffin, who was the most valuable player
> > of the CBA last season. He had tried out and failed with Miami, Golden State,
> > Dallas, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. He was even cut by a team in the Philippines.
> > Still, he persevered. Even when the Celtics threatened to pull the rug out from
> > his summer league invitation at the last minute before thinking better of it.
> > "I always believed that the Lord blessed me with the talent to play in the NBA,"
> > Griffin, the son of a Kansas preacher, said. "I had such great support. Whenever I
> > was down someone would pick me up.
> > "I can't say I was sure I'd ever get here. But I know I wasn't about to give up
> > trying."
> > A starter at small forward through the first 36 games of the season, Griffin went
> > down with a badly sprained right ankle on Jan. 8 and missed eight games. The
> > Celtics have brought him back slowly, using him off the bench since his return.
> > Still, he's averaging 8.9 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, good enough to earn
> > that invite to Oakland, where a team of the top rookies of the season will face a
> > team of the best from last season.
> > "He's really good," said Stephon Marbury after Griffin had smacked the Nets with a
> > 16-point, 11-rebound effort earlier this season. "He does the little things to win
> > ballgames, the things that don't show up on the stat sheet. He's a guy who I'd
> > love to have on my team. He doesn't complain about (not) getting the ball. He just
> > goes out and plays."
> > As a 25-year-old rookie, Griffin has a bit more perspective on his good fortune
> > than some of the league's teeny-bopper freshmen.
> > "All I was thinking about last summer was putting on a jersey and being an NBA
> > player," he said. "It's all gone so quick. It seems like just yesterday I was in
> > the summer league and I turned around and was in an NBA game.
> > "I still think to myself sometimes: 'I'm actually here. I'm in the NBA.' It's a
> > great feeling. ... Going into NBA arenas, wearing the Celtics uniform, even
> > wearing NBA practice sweats is something that took me much longer to achieve. I'm
> > enjoying every minute of it. How could I not appreciate everything that has
> > happened to me since I came to the Celtics? Playing in the NBA is something I
> > could never take for granted."
> > Notes: Bothered by a thigh bruise, Marbury did not practice yesterday. Neither did
> > Lucious Harris, who was having his sore hamstring re-evaluated. Marbury is
> > expected to play tonight.