Bulls guard Adrian Griffin is making $807,546 this season, a sum that may not feed Latrell Sprewell’s family but does just fine for Griffin and his growing brood.
His wife, Audrey, and their four kids live in Houston, where she is student teaching while she completes work on her master’s degree in education.
Big families are nothing new for Griffin, 30, who grew up in Wichita, Kan., as one of five children of David and Helen Griffin. David was a pastor and Helen did odd jobs to make ends meet, which, perhaps foreshadowing Griffin’s NBA career, wasn’t always easy.
“We didn’t have much, and I remember at a real young age going with my dad and brother to pick up cans,” Griffin said. “The lesson my dad taught me is a man puts his pride aside and does whatever he can to help his family. We’d pick up cans. We’d mow lawns. We’d work with him as he helped my mom clean buildings at night.
“I was getting life lessons at a young age. Regardless of circumstances, you don’t have a reason to quit.”
Some professional athletes’ garages resemble car dealership showrooms. Randy Moss is talked about as much for his backside as his upside. Sprewell may no longer be best known as the player who choked his coach, such was the absurdity of his “I’ve got my family to feed” comment as he pulls down $14.7 million.
Story after story reinforces the perception that in today’s world of ridiculous money and fame, many athletes are disconnected from reality.
If that’s your take, then pull up a chair. Griffin’s story, one of perseverance and perspective, is for you.
Griffin went undrafted after a solid four-year career at Seton Hall. So he turned into one of those basketball nomads, with short stints in the USBL and the Italian League and a long stint with Connecticut in the CBA.
“I remember every day before practice, he’d wear these weird [weighted] shoes that were supposed to make you jump higher,” said Clippers guard Rick Brunson, a fellow basketball nomad who was Griffin’s CBA teammate. “He’d jump rope and do drills before practice and then work extra after practice. I said to somebody, `Either that dude’s crazy or he’s going to be in the NBA.'”
The latter happened after Griffin spent three seasons with Connecticut. He was named most valuable player of the 1999 CBA Finals.
As a 25-year-old rookie with Boston, he made 47 starts and once shared the NBA’s rookie of the month award with Lamar Odom. But the Celtics didn’t re-sign him after two seasons.
He cracked the playoff rotation in his two seasons with Dallas, but his reward was a ticket to Houston.
That’s where players with less perspective might have crumbled.
Griffin tore cartilage in his right knee before the 2003-04 season and the subsequent surgery limited him to 19 games and 133 minutes.
“That was a low point–I thought my career was over,” Griffin said. “My cartilage damage was right on the spot where the bones come together. Every time I planted, it killed me.”
More than one person suggested retirement.
But then Griffin thought back to the road he had traveled to reach the NBA, the protein shakes he’d make, long before they were fashionable. He remembered the advice his father gave him. He refused to quit.
“I knew I was a long shot to make the NBA,” Griffin said. “It’s humbling to know you’re not as good as some players and you have to go the CBA and work on skills. There were several times I wanted to hang it up. But I had my family. And I had my father.
“He’d just tell me that I’d make it one day and not to give up. He was a very spiritual man. He would tell me he was my spiritual coach. We never talked about basketball. He would always just make sure my mental and spiritual life was fine.”
It is fine these days as Griffin, having been acquired from Houston in the Dikembe Mutombo trade, has settled in as a veteran leader on the Bulls.
Griffin doesn’t play much–he’s averaging 9.3 minutes–but every time he does play, something positive seems to happen. His contributions may not always show up in the box score, but they resonate with teammates.
They were the ones who voted Griffin one of three team captains in training-camp balloting, along with Kirk Hinrich and Antonio Davis.
“I was shocked,” Griffin said. “I sat out all last year, and I was just trying to make the team. Training camp was the first time I had played in a long time. But it’s an honor. I think players respect other players who put in the time.”
Griffin is right about that.
“It’s just the way he carries himself,” said Tyson Chandler, who acknowledged voting for Griffin. “Some guys do the right thing and never cause problems. He’s one.”
Added Hinrich, another Griffin supporter: “If anybody had a problem on the team, you could go to Griff and he could help you.”
Griffin said his family gives him his perspective. He and his wife, his college sweetheart, agonized over whether she and the kids should stay in Houston. But Griffin’s future is uncertain–his contract is up in July–and they didn’t want to disrupt their kids, ages 7 to 1.
Griffin’s mother, Helen, still works in day care in Wichita.
“He gets his work ethic from his family,” Brunson said. “I respect guys in the league who can work, not guys who can play, and he works harder than anybody.
“I remember he used to drive this old, old BMW model. I think they only made one of them. He had to make the NBA just so he could get a new car. Tell him I said that too.”
Griffin is told.
“Hey, it got me from Point A to Point B,” he said, smiling.
Despite nagging soreness in his knee, Griffin is still chugging along, although he has lost one important fan.
David Griffin passed away in 2000, after his son’s first NBA season. Earlier that year he traveled to Oakland to watch Adrian play in the Rookie Challenge on All-Star weekend.
“That’s one of my fondest memories,” Griffin said. “That was really special. He got to hang with some of the players. We took a bunch of pictures of him with KG [Kevin Garnett] and Chris Webber. You should’ve seen the look on his face.”
You should’ve seen the look on Griffin’s as he remembered it.
