Fame is a funny and fickle thing. It can make you feel like you are on top of the world for one minute, but then, as soon as people move on to the next big thing, you are essentially rendered irrelevant, and that has to hurt.
That is where Detroit Pistons big man Blake Griffin currently finds himself.
Sure, he still puts up great numbers. Yes, he still made the All-Star team. Yes, opponents still game plan for him. And yet, Griffin has plummeted into the depths of NBA irrelevancy, going from one of the league's top upcoming stars to a guy you nary hear a peep about.
You can argue that that has something to do with the fact that Detroit is not exactly the glamorous market of Los Angeles, where Griffin spent the first eight-and-a-half years of his career as a member of the Clippers, but Griffin's downturn in popularity began even before he was dealt to the Pistons in the middle of last season.
And honestly, you can see why.
Up until this year, where Griffin played in 75 games, the 30-year-old averaged just 51.3 games per season from 2016 through 2018, topping out at 61 contests during the 2016-17 campaign.
To make matters worse, Griffin bowed out early in both the 2016 and 2017 playoffs with injuries. Last year, he didn't even make the postseason.
It's a real shame, too, because back in 2015 when Blake was hitting his peak, he was a playoff monster, averaging 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, 6.1 assists, a steal and a block per game in the Clippers' 14-game postseason that famously ended in a seven-game second-round loss to the Houston Rockets, where Los Angeles blew a 3-1 series lead.
Neither Griffin or LA really recovered after that point, and during the summer of 2017, the group began to disband, with Chris Paul being sent to the Rockets via a sign-and-trade. Then, midway through last season, Griffin was traded to Detroit.
Now, Griffin finds himself in an entirely different situation. He no longer has Paul breathing down his neck. He is the clear veteran leader of this Pistons squad and just had arguably the best regular season of his career, registering 24.5 points, 7.5 boards and 5.4 assists per game while shooting 46.2 percent from the floor, 36.2 percent from three-point range and 75.3 percent from the free-throw line.
Remember all of those criticisms about how all Griffin could do was dunk? Those do not exist anymore, as Griffin is now a terrific outside shooting big man. The days of him being unable to hit free throws are also long gone.
He still isn't the greatest defender in the world, but he does what he can on that end of the floor.
Basically, Griffin is a really, really good player who actually flies under the radar these days. If I would have told you four years ago that Blake would be flying under the radar one day, you would have said I was losing it, but that is exactly what Griffin is doing in 2019.
Here is the problem, though: even though Griffin stayed healthy throughout most of the season, he ended the year with knee issues, issues that were his biggest enemy in Hollywood. Now, they are rearing their ugly heads again, and it is coming at the worst possible time with Game 1 of Detroit's first-round playoff series with the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks looming on Sunday evening.
Obviously, no one is expecting the Pistons to beat the Bucks. After all, Milwaukee finished with the best record in the league and Detroit finished at .500, only making the playoffs because the bottom half of the Eastern Conference is a smorgasbord of, uh, let's just call them not-so-good teams.
But there is no reason why a healthy Griffin should not be able to at least make the Bucks sweat a bit in a couple of these games, and there is also no reason why he should not be the second-best player on the floor behind Giannis Antetokounmpo.
As a matter of fact, there should even be times where Griffin is even better than Antetokounmpo, because Blake still has it in him to dominate games for stretches.
The thing is, Griffin can't do that if he isn't healthy.
Now, clearly, Griffin's persistent health issues are not his fault. His knees just have not held up all that well. But still, whenever someone hears of Griffin having knee problems, it has gotten to a point where eye rolls have become much more common than gasps.
As terrific as Griffin is as a player, the harsh reality is that no one takes him all that seriously anymore, and he was always fighting an uphill battle in that regard to begin with.
He flops. He whines. He can't shoot. All he does is dunk.
These are all criticisms that Griffin has heard throughout his career, and when you had “injury prone” on top of that, it makes the casual fan (and even many diehards) merely cast his name aside when talking about the best players in the NBA.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, Griffin is running out of chances to prove himself, and that's sad, because he really is one of the best big men in the league and has kept up with the times of space-and-pace against all odds.
But the mere mention of the name “Blake Griffin” elicits groans and snickers rather than praise and reverence, and the fact that no one is even talking about his presence in this upcoming playoff series demonstrates just how far he has fallen in the public view.
Griffin is currently listed as questionable for Game 1, but it's the playoffs. Chances are, he will play. The question is, just how well will he play?
He has a chance to lead the Pistons to a colossal upset, or at least make this series a heck of a lot closer than anyone expects.
If he does that, maybe, just maybe, he will start to garner a bit more respect.
And honestly, it's hard not to root for him.
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