The All-Star Process: Griffin vs. Odom

We have all seen Steve Nash skip bounce passes into hanging buckets in rapid succession. We have all seen NBA and WNBA players collaborating in an exercise that is half a game of horse and half a game of grab-ass. We have all seen Jason Kapono clones throwing it in the ocean from around the Arc. We have all seen dunk champions of years past, posing as judges, holding up ‘10’ cards on every completed slam, as relevant on-lookers grab each other as if they’ve witnessed the return of Christ.

The NBA All-star weekend festivities have officially jumped the shark. Not to mention, NBA All-star voting is an absolute comedy, reminiscent of a 3rd grade class presidential election or who gets picked first for dodge ball on the playground (which of course we all know is based solely on who traded what to who at the lunch table).

Who honestly even cares about a system where a perpetually injured Yao Ming is the Western Conference’s starting center? What is “earned” in this process is solely due to the size of your fan-base, be it cult following or entire foreign country. It has nothing to do with pertinent numbers, winning or current relevance. I’m half-surprised Allen Iverson hasn’t recieved a couple million votes this season.

With this bitter diatribe as well as the slanted-eye of Laker-fansmanship aside, I offer my case for Blake Griffin getting an all-star nod over the seemingly undeserved and “popular” pick, Lamar Odom.

Griffin’s 47 points and 14 rebounds a week ago was his twenty-seventh consecutive double-double. Odom doesn’t even have twenty double-doubles on the season, let alone consecutive. 47 points is the league-wide game-high so far for the season and is also something Lamar has never accomplished in his entire NBA career. 47 and the top performance on the season, not bad for a rookie.

Griffin has averaged 22.8 points, 12.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists on the season, and 27.2 points, 14.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists in the past month. Odom has averaged 15.6 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists on the season, and 15.1 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists in the past month. Not only are Griffin’s numbers substantially better overall in every facet and in any time-frame, he has also improved the past month as Odom has slightly regressed.

Griffin also out-played Odom in their most recent match-up, a Clipper win, in which Odom lost his head with the outcome of the game already decided, when he tossed Griffin to the floor while positioning for the rebound of an insignificant free-throw. Sore losers don’t make good all-stars.

Also scoring points for Griffin is the fact that Lamar comes across as lazy and careless while Griffin is anything but. It seems that with Lamar, there is a particular amount of wasted talent and overall lack of his will, or lack thereof, on the outcome. Wasted talents don’t make good all-stars either.

Odom is part of a two-time champion and helped win gold at the World Championships for his country this past summer. While these feats are highly commendable, they are team triumphs. Let us not reward reasonable players on winning teams simply because they deserve a “life-time achievement” award. Can anybody say Eric Crouch for Heisman?

While you can’t deny Odom’s versatility, the overall malleability of Griffin’s game is something the league hasn’t seen in decades. People are struggling to compare Blake to any power forward of years past. Some have even made the notion that he is only most comparable with Lebron James, due to how extraordinary and ridiculous his overall talent is. The basic fact of the matter becomes: Griffin can only be compared to Griffin, and while Odom is known league-wide as a different breed of player, the way Griffin breaks the mold puts Odom to shame in that regard.

If I may make an analogy in “freak,” Odom is to Randall Cunningham as Griffin is to Michael Vick. Everyone was amazed at how Cunningham broke the mold when he came into the league, one of the first true pass/run threats of the modern era – but when Vick took the league by storm, he took the pass/run quarterback dynamic to a whole new level that Cunningham could never even hope to equal on even his best day. Such is the same with Odom and Griffin.

As I consider all factors, I keep coming back to one important point that must be considered. Lamar’s idea of a meaningful off-day is strolling Rodeo Drive with his wife and having a production meeting for his upcoming “reality” TV show. Griffin’s idea of a productive day is being in the midst of his fifth hour of training and practicing, without his team, on an off-day.

While Griffin’s right hand is stuffed through the rim after an insane dunk, Odom’s right hand, which is non-existent on the hardwood, is stuffed in a bag of candy that has been laid out on the back seat of his limo.

On the subject of stuffing, before we stuff the entire all-star process altogether – make sure to stuff the ballot box with Griffin.

-Andrew Stevens