I know you barely noticed him, but there was a Griffin on the Suns last year. No, it obviously was not the heralded Blake Griffin, who was the top draft pick of last year's draft and selected by the Los Angeles Clippers. It was older brother Taylor Griffin.
It was a continuation of the tradition that former general manager Steve Kerr had started of drafting the inferior version of two brothers (Robin Lopez being the start of that tradition).
If any of you have been the older brother or have had an older brother, you will know how much it means to have bragging rights over the kid brother. No one would have ever thought that the Suns' version of the Griffin brothers would have the better rookie season in 2009-10.
But, believe it or not, Taylor had the better 2009-10 rookie year. He outscored Blake by ten points. Shocking?
It shouldn't be. It took a loophole. Blake's rookie year never happened, after a preseason injury led to his missing the entire season. Taylor scored a total of ten points and pulled down two rebounds during the season in a whopping total of 32 minutes of play.
Ten points to zero. That was the story. Nonetheless, they are bragging rights. That is, they were bragging rights. All that went away Wednesday night. In his debut, Blake outdid Taylor's entire season of scoring in the first ten minutes of the Clippers' opening night game, as tweeted by Paul Coro.
Blake's debut ended being 20 points and 14 rebounds in 39 minutes (outdoing Taylor in all categories in one night of work), and otherwise being the monster that many believe he will be for a long, long time in the league.
Taylor? He's not in the NBA anymore. He took his talents to Belgium after Phoenix waived him in July. So his dominance over his brother was short-lived. But he did have it, and that will count for something over time.
As for Blake, we can expect to see a lot of him and a lot of this for years to come, especially since the Suns really don't have anyone to guard him. I hope the rims at US Airway Center are ready for stuff like this:
Why couldn't have Taylor have been more like his brother (he even lacks in hair)?
And just in case you don't believe us that Taylor was once part of the Phoenix Suns, here's the proof.
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