Clippers: Picking events for L.A.’s stars at Rio Olympics

Blake Griffin – High jump

Yeah, you probably saw this one coming.

For critics of the Clippers (and there’s plenty of those to be found), it’s easy to forget what kind of player Blake Griffin is when he’s healthy. Last season, he was held to just 35 games in the regular season and a brief stint in the playoffs where he clearly wasn’t 100 percent before his quad injury flared up again to end his season.

Before the injuries and the fight with Matias Testi that knocked his reputation, though, Griffin was putting up some of the best numbers of his career with tremendous efficiency. Before that in the 2015 playoffs, he made averaging 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game look easy.

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More to the point, when considering him as a hypothetical Olympian, it seems too easy for some to forget that when healthy — which he should be completely come October — Griffin is one of the most impressive athletes in the NBA. At 27, he’s well and truly in his prime, and if his quadriceps injury was handled correctly early on, we may have seen more reminders of that fact last season.

Nevertheless, if there’s going to be a big man appearing in these fantastical Olympics at the high jump, there aren’t many better bigs — if any — than Griffin.

He left the Oklahoma Sooners in 2009 to go pro with a 35.5 inch vertical, with a muscular physique that has only matured as his career has gone on. Just last year, when he was tallying triple-doubles against the Spurs in the first round of the playoffs, he also delivered this tremendous trio of thunderous poster dunks over Aron Baynes to highlight the leaping ability that still devastates his opponents.

It goes without saying that Olympic high jumpers aren’t 6’10” athletes like Blake Griffin, but they are tall in comparison to your average joe watching from home or many other track and field competitors. For example, the gold medal winner from Rio, Derek Drouin from Canada, is 6’5″. He uses a unique technique with a slower run up to reduce pressure on his joints and unleash that saved energy for a sudden bounce over the bar, resulting in a tremendous gold-medal-winning jump of 2.38 meters this year.

No, Griffin wouldn’t be great for high jump against actual Olympic competition. The kind of control and agility in the air that professional high jumpers have can’t simply be replicated by an explosive power forward, even though his size would help. Not to mention the fact that the leaping is entirely different to basketball.

But if the Clippers were going to pick someone to represent them, who else could it be?

Equally, if Griffin fancies taking his talents elsewhere, perhaps he could join DeAndre on the beach.

Next: DeAndre Jordan - Beach Volleyball