LA Clippers Mamba Mentality Challenge: Blake Griffin
By Noah Shatzer
A few weeks ago, Kobe Bryant issued “Mamba Challenges” to various public personalities. Our staff felt the need to issue our own challenges to each LA Clippers’ player. Next up is Blake Griffin.
The Return
This offseason had the potential to be disastrous for the Clippers. Four of their five starts were free agents and it didn’t really seem like any of them were leaning towards staying. Chris Paul was traded to the Houston Rockets days before free agency started and Clippers fans began to worry that the first domino had fallen. While J.J. Redick and Luc Mbah-Moute also bolted from LA, with Mbah-Moute following Paul to Houston and Redick taking a hefty one-year deal to join the Philidelphia 76ers, Blake Griffin made it clear he wanted to stay in LA the night before the free agency period had started.
Blake Griffin had set up meetings with the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns but canceled them after the Clippers offered him the five-year max, returning back to LA to become the centerpiece of the franchise. With Paul gone and a whole new roster surrounding him, Griffin now has to become the leader of the Clippers on and off of the court and attempt to lead the team to the promise land.
Mamba Mentality Challenge
Just a few weeks ago, former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant took to Twitter and Instagram to give some of the league’s star players some challenges for this upcoming season. Bryant challenged newly acquired Cleveland Cavalier guard Isaiah Thomas to make the All-NBA First team, Giannis Antetokoumpto to win the league MVP, and John Wall to make the NBA All-Defensive First team along with a few others. The challenges, which are part of Bryant’s marketing for his newest shoe release, inspired many fans and experts around the league to wonder what challenges Kobe would set for their favorite players. So what challenge would the former cross-town rival have for Blake Griffin? (This tweet is completely fake and was made on Twitterino.com)
With Paul gone, Griffin has now become the main centerpiece of the LA Clippers. The extent of the success the team can have this season revolves around Griffin’s health and how he will play as the number one option. Griffin has finished in the top in MVP voting before, finishing 3rd in 2014 when he averaged 24.1 points and 9.5 rebounds per game with Chris Paul missing 18 games due to a separated shoulder.
Next: Mamba Mentality: Sam Dekker
With CP3 completely out of the picture, Griffin now has the opportunity to be the team’s number one option and prove once again that he is a top-ten player in the league. Blake’s MVP chances are directly related to the second part of the challenge, leading the Clippers to the playoffs. If Griffin averaged something around 25-10-8 this season without missing a significant amount of games and helps the Clippers secure one of the lower playoff seeds in a much-improved Western Conference, he should emerge as one of the front-runners for MVP.