Griffin, With Help From Shock, Ascending

Ron Bailey, Publisher

November 12, 2007 – The D.C. area is full of young men who are uncovered gems on the court; guys that don’t get a lot of notoriety and/or or under-recruited, yet can play the game successfully at many different levels. Stephen ‘Steve’ Griffin is one.

Griffin was first noticed by this writer during the summer, at the Maryland Hurricanes Tournament – a confab providing travel teams an opportunity to compete. For his work with the Washington Shock, Steve was named a 16 and under classification tourney all-star.

At the time, what jumped out was Griffin’s ability to get to the rim – he’s can truly drive, and either find open teammates or score. Steve also is an intelligent player, who seems to know what to do, and when to do it.

Stephen Griffin, in Washington Shock silks.

What’s also obvious of this 6’1”+ junior at Paint Branch High School (MD) is a need to round out his game, by strengthening his jumper. The young guy readily admits this shortcoming, as he noted “I practiced three hours a day in the summer” including putting up 500 shots.

Having starred this summer with the Shock, Griffin recently shared “Penn State, Davidson, West Virginia, Hampton, Howard, NC State, Virginia Tech, Buffalo and Columbia” all have shown various levels of interest.

Shock coach, James Lee, is not surprised.

“Being that we are a new organization, he’s one of the guys that I use as an example to the other guys if you work hard, the sky’s the limit” noted Lee recently. “I was introduced to Steven when he was starting his ninth grade year and he was real raw. He worked with me for about a year and a half, and his handle and court vision have improved so much.

“I think he really would be a great guard at the next level, because he makes his teammates better and has a great work ethic, great attitude, and is also a great student athlete (he has a 3.4 GPA)”.

Nor has another Shock coach, David Parks, who supplied an anecdotes that aptly describe Griffin’s impact on the Shock this summer:

“At the West Virginia tourney this past summer, we found ourselves at the end of a long day in a battle against the Fairfax Stars; at this point in the tourney, the winner of our game got out of pool play and moved on to the playoffs.

“Stephen was the constant. I don’t remember his exact stat line, but he had to have been somewhere around 10 points, seven-eight assists and five or six steals. This was a very low scoring game but it seemed like every time the Stars seemed to try to get back in the game, Stephen would get a bucket, or a dime, or a steal to knock the wind out of their sails.

“When the game got close at the end, he didn’t rush or get hurried by time…he was under control as always, almost as if we had another coach on the floor.

“I’d say the best thing about Stephen is that he gives us what we need, when we need it”.

Griffin is happy he’s involved with the Shock, a travel team program based out of Montgomery County, MD, as he believes “The Shock are like my family the coaches are always there…they are all positive male role models”.

Sometimes, a young person just needs to the right environment to succeed, which seems to be the case for Stephen Griffin: Through working with the Shock, he not only has made a name for himself in the world of travel team basketball, but is poised to do major work for Paint Branch this season. It’s a win-win for all involved.

Griffin File:

Favorite activities away from hoops: “I like to watch TV and chill and spend time with my brother”
Favorite Food: Dino Nuggets
Favorite TV Show: Fresh Prince
Favorite Book: “Driven from within” by Michael Jordan
Favorite Music Artist: Kanye West