Blake Griffin Feeling 100% Healthy

Griffin tells the LA Times that he can hardly wait to restart his career: “Griffin, the Clippers’ power forward, has been pain free after a long and winding road of rehabilitation, and restrictions on his activities were lifted in May. But Griffin, a few days before Thursday’s NBA draft in New York, talked about a recent breakthrough and sounded like a little kid who had been allowed to sit at the table with the adults. ‘I was so excited just to play one-on-one again,’ he said in a telephone interview. ‘I was asking Craig [Smith] and Mardy [Collins] if they wanted to, ‘All right, can we play one-on-one?’ The self-deprecating Griffin chuckled, adding: ‘It was kind of sad.’ Griffin was speaking from a long day of commercial activities in New York and was not planning to stay for Thursday’s draft. The Clippers have the No. 8 pick, barring any last-minute deals, so they could have two first-round picks in the lineup making their NBA debut together this fall. Griffin was forced to develop new qualities since he suffered a stress fracture of his left kneecap in the Clippers’ final preseason game — and sat out the entire regular season. ‘I’d like to say I found out how to be patient, I guess,’ he said. ‘Really, just wait things out, take your time and not rush things because there’s so much that goes into coming back.’ There will be, apparently, one small modification. ‘You’re going to see the normal Blake,’ he said. ‘I might save the jumping over the scorer’s table for the regular season. I’m gonna play hard, though; that’s how I was taught to play. It’s the only way I know how to play.”‘