Eddie Griffin

by Vanilla Gorilla on Aug 22, 2007 2:14 PM EDT

So I have read a number of takes on Eddie Griffin's death, but none of them mentioned his mental illness until I came upon this post at FreeDarko. The comments further the discussion nicely, IMO.

Some members of my own family have dealt with both depression and addiction (and the spiral-inducing link between them), and my observations of them have colored my opinion of Griffin and his problems.

It makes me sad to see someone with Griffin's obvious physical gifts never come anywhere close to reaching his potential as a basketball player, but it makes me sadder to see someone suffer as much as Griffin apparently did.

This represents the view of the user who wrote the FanPost, and not the entire Bullets Forever community. We're a place of many opinions, not just one.

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Tragic story

Thanks for bringing this to light.

Free Darko's posts on the NBA are a bit overrated, IMO, but this is where they truly shine. I've never read another blog with more insightful social commentary, particularly with the NBA.

It's sad that Griffin was never able to get help for himself. It's clear that he should not have been playing in the NBA, and it saddens me to hear that the Timberwolves basically turned their back on him. Of course, all that is after the fact, but I wonder whether they could have done more to get him help even when he wasn't playing for their team.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Aug 23, 2007 1:42 AM EDT reply actions

Griffin

I thought Free Darko's commentary was on point. Painting this as a "stay in college" lesson as J.A. Adande did is too easy and also wrong. The guy clearly had problems and they would have manifested themselves in college just like in the NBA. College can be tough. And for someone with an underlying mental illness I would guess that it its damn near impossible. We've all known kids who couldn't handle the transition to college and dropped out or faded away during or after the first year. I think this would have happened to Griffin. Staying for 4 years was probably never even possible. Adande's column was simply using a tragedy to further his own agenda that players should stay in college for 4 years.

by hotplate on Aug 23, 2007 8:10 AM EDT reply actions