The End of the Beginning

All I can say is that I am stunned. When SportsCenter announced that Blake Griffin is going to miss the entire year with a knee injury, I had to rewind it and watch it again. Griffin, the number one pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, was my pick for Rookie of the Year. I guess if he wins it, he'll be the 2010-2011 winner.

Blake Griffin is not the first number one pick to miss all 82 games of his rookie season. Two years ago, Greg Oden missed his rookie year with a knee injury as well. Oden, another big man who had tons of hype coming into the NBA Draft, ended up having surgery on his knee, as will Griffin on January 20th. The Trail Blazers' center has had injuries in high school and in college, and he has played just 82 games in the three total years that he has been in the NBA. Ironically, he will miss the rest of the season with the same injury Griffin suffered: a broken left knee cap. I personally was not crazy about Greg Oden from the get-go and thought the Trail Blazers should have drafted Kevin Durant instead (and look at the numbers Durant is putting up now). I don't think Griffin will follow Oden's path, but I would not be surprised to see him on the bench in a suit in years to come.

Griffin had 30 double-doubles in his final year at Oklahoma while averaging 22.7 points per game and 14.4 rebounds per game. He led the Sooners to the Elite 8 where they lost to the eventual champions, the North Carolina Tar Heels. But Griffin, like Oden, has injured both knees. I think Griffin will go on to have an incredible NBA career and will be fairly healthy for his playing time in the NBA, but once you injure a part of your body, you become even more vulnerable to hurting it again. He originally hurt his knee in the final preseason game and was suppose to return to basketball in December, but after jumping in a pool, the doctors said that he was not healing properly. The Clippers, though less than five games out of the playoff race in the West, have had just two winning seasons in the last 30 years. They will need him healthy and ready to go in October if they want to have a better chance at making the playoffs next year.