Pelicans executive vice president David Griffin, who ran the Cavaliers during LeBron James’ second stint there, got some headlines this week for saying “I was miserable” running the Cavs at that time.
The full quote, from a profile in Sports Illustrated.
“Everything we did was so inorganic and unsustainable and, frankly, not fun. I was miserable,” Griffin says. “Literally the moment we won the championship I knew I was gonna leave. There was no way I was gonna stay for any amount of money.”
Now former Cavaliers enforcer Kendrick Perkins is running in to do what he does best: Smack around people who get in LeBron’s face.
Perkins responded on Twitter basically saying that Griffin was nothing without LeBron, and if he should have any problem with anyone, it’s Cavs owner Dan Gilbert.
While I think chocking up Griffin’s whole credibility to LeBron is a bit unfair, Perkins does have a point. Ownership sets what the organization is going to do, and if the edict from on high is “do whatever LeBron wants to make him happy,” well, it’s hard to blame LeBron for that.
James has only so long a career, and he wasn’t interested in projects or “organic growth” like Griffin might have been. I doubt James cares much about a balanced roster construction, and building plans for both short-term success and long-term, healthy growth or whatever. Dude wanted to win. Taking four years to teach Andrew Wiggins how to play basketball is a lot less enticing than pairing up with Kevin Love and winning a title. (Especially now seeing how Wiggins turned out, James was right in that regard.)
From Griffin’s perspective, sure, he was given less flexibility and had less control than he might have now. He couldn’t build that perfect long-term roster he wanted, get young guys on cheap deals and watch them develop. He had to get players who could win immediately, long-term goals be damned. I can understand why that might not be as fun from a GM perspective, but also, who cares? It’s a different problem to solve, and you got a ring.
I guess I’m with Perk on this one, and not just because he could beat me down much harder than Griffin ever could.
