Blake Griffin’s Dad: He’s “Nowhere Close to Being Ready”
Posted by rtmsf on February 24th, 2009We mentioned last night that Blake Griffin didn’t look good at all as he sat on the Oklahoma bench repeatedly rubbing his eyes and putting his head in his hands as a result of a concussion over the weekend. Today Andy Katz reported that Griffin would likely be back for OU’s Saturday game against Texas Tech, but that report was somewhat contradicted by Griffin’s father, Tommy, who said that his son is a long way from playing basketball again. Given the evidence that shows athletes have slower brain recovery when they return too quickly from a concussion, the OU doctors will certainly take no chances. Nor will his father. From the OKC Oklahoman:
“He’s a little bit better than he was,” Blake’s father, Tommy Griffin said before tipoff of OU’s Big Monday clash. “But he’s nowhere close to being ready to play.”
How Long Until OU Gets Their Star Back?
What were the odds that the top two NPOY candidates in the country would not be playing as we approach the stretch run of the season? Griffin has four more days to get ready for Texas Tech, a game where the Sooners can probably win without him. But there’s no question they’ll need him for the blockbuster game at Missouri next Wednesday. Will he be ready by then? And what about his conditioning and timing – every day he sits out makes it that much harder for the ripped big man to get back into game shape.
Another report that came out today was able to isolate when Griffin actually experienced the concussion. ESPN had been reporting for two days that Griffin suffered the injury as a result of a brush across the nose with UT center Dexter Pittman; however, Texas coach Rick Barnes thinks that it was actually a result of a spin coming off of a screen by guard Dogus Balbay. We can’t find any video evidence of this yet, so if you know of something, please let us know and we’ll put it up.
