Clippers' Griffin Out For Six Weeks

Sports News - October 27th, 2009 - Written by John

The Los Angeles Clippers' desired rise to relevancy will have to wait.

Star rookie forward Blake Griffin will miss about six weeks, according to the team, after he was diagnosed with a broke knee cap on Monday night. It was a stress fracture that occured following a dunk last Friday. He went flying through the lane and came down without making contact with anyone else. But he immediately winced when he came to the ground and began favoring his knee. It was believed to just be sore, but scans showed the damage was much worse.

Griffin will miss the season opener against cross-town rival Los Angeles Lakers and will likely miss about 20 games.

The type of injury suffered typically shelfs a player for six weeks or so, although it could be more. Griffin was the unanimous player of the year award last year and won the Naismith. He averaged 22.7 points with the Oklahoma Sooners to go along with a NCAA-high 14.4 rebounds.

The Clippers celebrated when it was revealed that they won the Lottery, and immediately announced they would select Griffin with the pick. They did, and Griffin has played well this year, putting up 13.7 points and 8.1 rebounds during the preseason.

It's not the first time Griffin has been ailing since entering the league. During summer league in July he strained his right shoulder and had to miss the remainer of the camp.

Los Angeles has become one of the worst franchises in sports, having only one winning season this decade and two in the last 30 years, and was hoping Griffin would revitalize the organization. It figured to have one of the best young front courts this season with Marcus Camby, Al Thornton and Rasaul Butler to go along with point guard Baron Davis.

The Clippers won only 19 games last year and were ravashed by NBA Injuries that claimed the minutes of Chris Kaman and Davis.

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