Blake Griffin Report: Blake Comes to NYC

Here's a digest of articles as Blake makes his way to Madison Square Garden tonight. To say that his arrival at the Garden is highly anticipated would be an understatement...

NBA phenom dunks his critics, reveals what makes him tick – New York Post
By PETER VECSEY

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The first thing I did upon meeting Blake Griffin for lunch Monday was to offer the Paper Weight a maximum extension on behalf of my Paper Clips.

Yes, I'm aware the NBA's most identifiable flying object isn't eligible to sign such a deal until after his third (next) season.
Still, there's no harm in letting Griffin know how desirable team owner Donald Sterling finds him these days -- home attendance is 17,245, up 8 percent, telecast ratings on Prime Ticket are up 82 percent, the biggest league increase other than Miami and road attendance is 17,155, up 6 percent.
If I'm James Dolan, whose pockets are Captain Kangaroo-sized, while the Paper Clips are in town tonight (talk about a tough ticket!) I offer Blake's father a job (Look, commissioner, no cap restraints!) as Knicks coach, general manager and president..

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Knicks bracing for another Blake show – NY Post
By MARK HALE

Mike D’Antoni believes dunks such as Blake Griffin’s transform the way a team plays.
“It changes the strength of your team,” the Knicks coach said yesterday. “Your other players feed off that stuff. And once they go into the game, you know you have that. And we have that with Amar’e [Stoudemire], and [the Clippers] have that with Griffin.
“Because of that, I think everybody else plays better. Just because it’s ‘OK, yeah, this is fun.’ I just think it gives you a chance. It gives you hope when maybe the hope wasn’t before.”

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Blake Griffin brings his high-flying act to Madison Square Garden to take on Knicks Wednesday night – NY Daily News
By Mitch Lawrence

Memo to air-traffic controllers at LaGuardia and Newark: The blip on your radar screens is not a plane or even something extra-terrestrial.

It's Blake Griffin, the NBA's newest one-man air show who will be flying around the Garden Wednesday night when he makes his New York pro debut with the revitalized Los Angeles Clippers.
After missing his entire rookie season with a knee injury, Griffin literally took off this season in a November game against the Knicks at the Staples Center. By soaring over Timofey Mozgov and Danilo Gallinari and throwing down two colossal dunks that immediately went viral, he became one of the NBA's hottest commodities.

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It's Blake Griffin's Turn at the Garden – Wall St. Journal
By SCOTT CACCIOLA

High-flying Blake Griffin of the Clippers goes airborne in a game against the Miami Heat in Los Angeles on Jan. 12.
Through the first half of his rookie season with the Los Angeles Clippers, Blake Griffin has done just about everything anyone can do on a basketball court short of mopping it.

He has dunked on 7-foot Russian centers and has elevated 360-degree layups into high art. A Western Conference All-Star and one-man marketing campaign, Mr. Griffin has somehow managed to make attending Clippers games not just palatable but fashionable—perhaps his greatest achievement yet.

But any provincial, self-aggrandizing New Yorker would tell you that there remains a serious gap on his résumé, a rite of passage for any NBA player who has aspirations of true greatness: He must play amid the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. On Wednesday night, Mr. Griffin will fulfill that obligation when the Clippers visit the Knicks. The marquee will be his.

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Clippers' high-flying Griffin becoming next human highlight reel – CBSSports.com
By Greg Stoda

MIAMI -- Both feet were plunged into a blue tub filled with ice chips floating in frigid water.

Each knee was encased in a stretched-cloth wrap holding ice packs -- what else? -- in place.

Blake Griffin is the pterodactyl of a rookie power forward for the Los Angeles Clippers, and already he has become a must-see NBA highlight reel. He is a 6-10, 251-pound package of power and no small amount of grace who routinely flies through the air with the greatest of ease to grab rebounds and/or throw down stunning dunks.

But on an early Sunday afternoon with Super Bowl kickoff still hours away, the 21-year-old Griffin felt as though he had just played his own version of football.

"I'm getting used to it," Griffin said at his cubicle in the visitors' locker room in American Airlines Arena after a loss to the Heat.

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