http://www.startribune.com/511/story/1060770.html I got suckered by Eddie Griffin along with the rest of them. By them, I mean some pretty impressive and wise folks, when it comes to evaluating basketball talent and prospects for success in the NBA. I marveled at Griffin's combination of big-man stature and long-distance shooting skill, his ability to swat shots and snag rebounds at one end and then launch those line drives from beyond the arc with, at times, uncanny accuracy. In fact, way back in Griffin's rookie season of 2001-02, watching coach Rudy Tomjanovich use the then 19-year-old on the perimeter in his successful inside-out system developed for Hakeem Olajuwon, the thought hit me: "This is the type of kid who could give Kevin Garnett a big headache in a few years." Except that his game didn't develop. He fell in love with the three-point shot, even as he squinted to compensate for overdue laser eye surgery. He never really improved as a team defender and, most likely, these failings and undone tasks stemmed from emotional, alcohol and substance problems away from the court. Griffin had two strikes on him, in Houston and New Jersey, when the Timberwolves hurried him into town for training camp in October 2004. It was a worthy gamble at the time. He teased them -- 7.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.7 blocks in 21 minutes nightly -- enough to earn a second look. Whether he earned a three-year, $8.1 million contract -- which he signed while serving out a 15-day jail sentence for a probation violation in the summer of 2005 -- is another matter. No matter, Griffin's Minnesota career came to an end with his release Tuesday night. The talent scouts and personnel directors might have been wrong about him overall, but I was right in one sense. Griffin did give Garnett a big headache after all. --

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