{"id":332,"date":"2009-06-24T13:10:25","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T18:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=332"},"modified":"2009-06-24T13:11:14","modified_gmt":"2009-06-24T18:11:14","slug":"tell-me-im-crazy-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=332","title":{"rendered":"Tell Me I&#8217;m Crazy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><strong>Blake Griffin will not\u00a0participate in\u00a0more NBA All-Star Games\u00a0than Tyler Hansbrough<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tell me I&#8217;m crazy.<\/p>\n<p>I know, it sounds ridiculous, but let us think about it for a little bit before you knee-jerk react and call me nuts.\u00a0 I am not saying that Griffin is going to be a bust; I am also not saying that Hansbrough will be a star.\u00a0 All I am saying is that I think that if Griffin has what it takes to be a star in this league, so does Hansbrough.\u00a0 And, if Hansbrough has all the makings of a &#8220;bust,&#8221; why do we not say the same for Griffin?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\" width=\"265\" src=\"http:\/\/www.supermediablog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/blake-griffin.jpg\" height=\"345\" \/>What do people think\u00a0Griffin has that Hansbrough does not?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Freakish athleticism?<\/em> &#8211; Yes, this is will concede this point without any argument.\u00a0 Griffin is a freak athlete and Hansbrough is not.\u00a0 Griffin is quicker, a better leaper, and just all-around more athletic.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 No debate.<\/li>\n<li><em>Age?<\/em>\u00a0 Again, I cannot debate this.\u00a0 It is a fact that Blake Griffin is two years younger than Tyler Hansbrough.<\/li>\n<li><em>Size?<\/em>\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Actually, this is completely false.\u00a0 I was shocked about this too because I thought Griffin was a true 6&#8217;11&#8221; and Hansbrough would be lucky to measure 6&#8217;9&#8243;.\u00a0 But, as it turns out, Hansbrough measured one-half inch <em>taller <\/em>than Griffin at the official NBA combine.\u00a0 In fact, Hansbrough&#8217;s standing reach is a full <em>two-plus inches<\/em>\u00a0higher than Griffin&#8217;s and is actually slightly higher than Amare Stoudemire&#8217;s.\u00a0 I always said that Hansbrough just isn&#8217;t big enough to play an NBA 4, but the way the league is going and the fact that Hansbrough&#8217;s standing reach is higher than Amare&#8217;s, I have completely gone back on that opinion.<\/li>\n<li><em>Motor?<\/em>\u00a0 Okay, I have never actually heard someone say that Griffin has more &#8220;motor&#8221; than Hansbrough specifically, but\u00a0I have heard all this talk\u00a0about\u00a0Griffin&#8217;s\u00a0and\u00a0very little about Hansbrough&#8217;s.\u00a0 Did anyone else watch the player that I watched at UNC for the past four years?\u00a0 Motor is what defined Tyler Hansbrough for four years.<\/li>\n<li><em>Collegiate success against elite competition?<\/em>\u00a0 Yes, you will hear over and over again about how Griffin was the 2008-09 NCAA basketball Player of the Year&#8211;an honor that he undisputably deserved.\u00a0 But, how quickly we forget that Hansbrough was the 2007-08 Player of the Year.\u00a0\u00a0Also, Hansbrough finished second, behind Griffin, even though\u00a0he battled through a couple minor injuries and was surrounded by a supporting cast that took <em>a lot <\/em>of the burden, and therefore statistics, off of him. \u00a0Griffin was everything for Oklahoma&#8211;impressive, but also allowed him to accumulate statistics.\u00a0 And, &#8220;success against elite competition?&#8221;\u00a0 Well, Hansbrough is the ACC&#8217;s all-time leading scorer (arguably, the conference with the best basketball history).\u00a0 He made the first-team All-ACC all four years.\u00a0 He was first-team All-American three times (he made the second team as a freshman).\u00a0 Plus, he was the ACC&#8217;s Rookie of the Year in 2006, Player of the Year in 2008, and probably would have won Player of the Year again in 2009 if he had stayed healthy (instead, it went to his teammate, Ty Lawson).<\/li>\n<li><em>Basketball pedigree?<\/em>\u00a0 Yes, Griffin comes from a basketball family.\u00a0 We all watching his brother play side-by-side with him at OU for the past two years.\u00a0 Well, has anyone ever heard of Ben Hansbrough?\u00a0 If not, you will.\u00a0 He is Tyler&#8217;s younger brother and played two years at Mississippi State before sitting out last year so that he can transfer to Notre Dame and finish his two years of eligibility.\u00a0 Hansbrough is well on his way to becoming a 1000-point scorer&#8211;possibly even before reaching his senior season.\u00a0 He averaged 10.4 points, 2.6 assists, and 3.9 rebounds as a shooting guard for the Bulldogs in &#8217;07-08.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\" width=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/weblogs.newsday.com\/sports\/watchdog\/blog\/ap%20Hansbrough.jpg\" height=\"410\" \/>Now, what might Hansbrough have that tomorrow&#8217;s #1 draft choice does not?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Desire?<\/em>\u00a0 I am not ready to put Griffin down on this one, but it is clear that Hansbrough is a maniac on the court.\u00a0 Griffin is one of the most naturally gifted rebounders that I have ever watched on the collegiate level, and that is great, but Hansbrough gets rebounds with desire and heart.\u00a0 And, anyone who has ever played basketball knows that&#8211;on any level&#8211;rebounding is as much about <em>desire <\/em>as it is about <em>ability<\/em>.\u00a0 Though I like Griffin&#8217;s makeup and heart, I have absolutely NO questions about Hansbrough&#8217;s<\/li>\n<li><em>Leadership?<\/em>\u00a0 Now, maybe this is not fair because we only saw Griffin as a freshman and sophomore with a mediocre supporting cast, but this consensus #1 pick got beat by Hansbrough&#8217;s UNC team in the Elite Eight this year, as the Tar Heels went on their way to winning a national title.\u00a0 Hansbrough was clearly the leader of the championship team.\u00a0 He was also the clear leader on a Final Four team in 2008 (as Griffin&#8217;s Sooners lost by 30 in the second round to Louisville) and\u00a0an Elite Eight team (that should have made the Final Four) in 2007.\u00a0 Plus, as a freshman, he led a rebuilding UNC team to a #3 seed, before a surprise loss to eventual Final Four team George Mason.\u00a0 Now, would Griffin have those credentials if he stayed four years?\u00a0 Maybe, but we do not know.\u00a0 And, that point leads us straight into&#8230;<\/li>\n<li><em>Experience?<\/em>\u00a0 Hansbrough played in 12 NCAA tournament games (winning 9, including one title), 10 ACC tournament games (winning 8, including two titles), and\u00a0almost\u00a0all of his team&#8217;s\u00a064 ACC conference games over the course of his career (UNC was 50-14 in his 4 years, with three regular season titles and one second place finish).\u00a0 He has lived the &#8220;big game&#8221; for 4 years now.\u00a0 Griffin has played in some big games too, in his two years at OU, but the Big XII&#8217;s regular season (and even the conference tournament) cannot hold a candle to the intensity of every ACC game, regular season or tournament.<\/li>\n<li><em>Work ethic?<\/em>\u00a0 Again, this is not a knock on Griffin.\u00a0 He probably has a strong work ethic, but do we know that for sure?\u00a0 I think we can say definitively that Hansbrough will work his tail off, at all times, and has already shown\u00a0(wait for it)\u00a0that he can take a weakness and turn it into a strength simply by working at it&#8230;<\/li>\n<li><em>Jump shot?<\/em>\u00a0 This is the big advantage Hansbrough has over Griffin heading into the NBA.\u00a0 Can Griffin develop a jumper?\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 But, Hansbrough already has.\u00a0 With hard work in the offseasons, particularly the one leading up to his senior year, Hansbrough basically doubled the range on his jump shot.\u00a0 Plus, he took his free-throw percentage from 73% as a freshman (already pretty solid) to a remarkable 85% as a senior, including a streak of 28 consecutive made FTs.\u00a0 Griffin, on the other hand, has basically no range outside of 8 feet, and shot free throws at an alarming 59% in both his freshman and sophomore seasons.\u00a0 Unless you are a ferocious, once-in-generation\u00a0defender like Ben Wallace or a physical god like Shaq or Dwight Howard, you are not making an NBA All-Star game without at least a mediocre ability to shoot the basketball.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Again, as I said in the beginning, it is not like I am in love with Tyler Hansbrough&#8217;s NBA potential, nor am I convinced the Clippers are making a mistake with the Griffin selection. \u00a0They both might be stars.\u00a0 They both might be solid role players, but not All-Stars (more likely).\u00a0 I am not sure.\u00a0 All I am saying is that the skill sets are pretty similar if you really look at them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Basically, if you offered me even money that Blake Griffin would <em>not <\/em>make more NBA All-Star games than Tyler Hansbrough, I would quickly take that wager.<\/p>\n<p>Tell me I&#8217;m crazy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blake Griffin will not\u00a0participate in\u00a0more NBA All-Star Games\u00a0than Tyler Hansbrough Tell me I&#8217;m crazy. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but let us think about it for a little bit before you knee-jerk react and call me nuts.\u00a0 I am not &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=332\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,105],"tags":[246,637,10],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nba","category-tell-me-im-crazy","tag-blake-griffin","tag-nba-draft","tag-tyler-hansbrough"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}