Thursday, May 1, 2014

BLAKE GRIFFIN MODELING HIS WORK ETHIC AFTER THE GAME'S GREATS

The following is an excerpt of a story on the Clippers Blake Griffin that was written by Robert Morales of the Long Beach Telegraph.  The story speaks to how Griffin has not only heard about the work ethic of the great players before him but has used it to model his own work ethic.

“I’ve heard millions of Kobe (Bryant) stories about late-night workouts,” said Griffin, whose team takes on Detroit on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Staples Center. “One I heard, one time I guess he was in Italy and called Marco Belinelli (of the Spurs) at like 1, 2 o’clock in the morning and asked him if he had a gym for him, and so Marco found him one and he went there to shoot with him.

“And he (Belinelli) was like, ‘I thought we were going to just get some shots up, but we had like a full workout.’ Things like that. That’s work ethic, real worth ethic. It’s not just coming in when you have to and going hard. It’s doing extra, going above and beyond.”

Griffin hangs his hat on that credo.

“Work ethic has always been a big part of what I do,” he said. “I’m a firm believer, the more work you put in, the more you get out. You know, I love hearing stories about the Kobe’s and the LeBron’s and back in the day, Michael Jordan, how they work and how sometimes they’re a little different about it. That’s what makes them unique.”