By now you've probably read somewhere or seen the fact that former NBA player Eddie Griffin died after driving his SUV into an oncoming train. J.A. Adande writes a terrific column on why Eddie Griffin is now the posterboy of how entering the draft early can be incredibly costly and the wrong decision. To me Eddie Griffin was one of my favorite players, as odd as that may sound to others. During the 00-01 season I absolutely fell in love with the Seton Hall team. They had three terrific freshman with Andre Barrett, Marcus Toney-El and Eddie himself. They had shot-blocking and uber athlete Samuel Dalembert. They got off to a terrific start and even sky rocketed to the #7 ranking in the country before collapsing in the Big East.
They were by far my favorite team that season and Eddie was the shining star. I knew there was a great chance he was going to leave the Hall after winning freshman of the year honors but I hoped that he would stay at the Hall and lead them to a Final Four, because well, their team was exciting to watch. But he came out and Dalembert followed and while I still rooted for Barrett and the leftovers at the Hall, their team just wasn't the same.
Then Eddie got drafted #7 and I thought the sky was the limit. He could score, he could board and he definitely could shot-block. And at times it looked like he had cleaned up his act and was going to capitalize on his abilities. But the problems kept creeping up and the potential was never reached.
Every time he sprung up in free agency I hoped the Celtics would snatch him simply because of his potential, but they never did and now they never will, and that is pretty sad to me.
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