thedrifter
01-13-09, 06:47 AM
Basketball prodigy's tall tale is no myth
Nimitz High standout Brittney Griner has high expectations to match her 6-foot-8-inch frame
By STEVE CAMPBELL
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Jan. 13, 2009, 12:04AM
Brittney Griner made a grand entrance.
Griner wasn’t playing basketball that day last month at the Clear Creek High School Gym, wasn’t wearing her Nimitz Cougars uniform. She was just there to watch the Peggy Whitley Classic, yet eyes immediately bored in on her from all directions.
She’s 6-foot-8, and doctors tell her she’s still growing. She wears size-17 shoes. She has an 86-inch wingspan. The only way Griner can keep heads from turning and crowds from buzzing is to shut herself in her house, and that’s no way for a basketball prodigy to live.
A stranger pulled out a camera and started clicking off pictures. Griner smiled for the camera and laughed to herself, having made peace with her conspicuous place in the world.
“It helps a lot that I’m just real comfortable with my height,” Griner said. “Some girls when they’re tall, they have a real hard time dealing with their height and their confidence level. When I started getting tall, I just wanted to keep growing.”
Slumped into an undersize chair after a weekday practice at Nimitz, Griner grinned. In less than four years of organized basketball, she has grown eight inches vertically and light-years in on-court savvy and skill. Griner, 18, is the consensus No. 1 recruit nationally in the Class of 2009.
“I figure I can’t shrink,” Griner said, “so I might as well use my height.”
Griner is averaging 27.1 points, 12.6 rebounds and 9.4 blocks per game and shooting 68.9 percent for the state’s top-ranked Class 5A team. No, her exploits are not a litany of tall tales hatched by overactive imaginations. Griner dunks with ease. One-handed. Two-handed. Frontward. Backward. On the run. From a standing start.
“I bet you’ve never seen something like that, have you?” Baylor Bears coach Kim Mulkey said, knowing full well the answer. Mulkey has been involved in women’s college basketball for more than a quarter of a century. She is the only person to win NCAA basketball titles as a player, assistant coach and head coach. And Mulkey counts it as “a blessing” that in November Griner signed a national letter of intent to join the Baylor program next season.
“You just don’t see girls do what she does,” said Mulkey, who won a national title at Baylor in 2005. “You may not see the likes of that again in this country.”
As soon as the words left Mulkey’s mouth, she reconsidered.
“You’ll never see another one like her,” Mulkey said.
Supreme dunker
Griner doesn’t merely play above the rim. She can snatch rebounds with one hand, as she did when two players had her boxed out in a recent game against district rival Eisenhower. Around the basket and by the 3-point-line alike, Griner can swoop in on opposing shooters like a pterodactyl.
Lisa Leslie was the first player to dunk in a WNBA game, using a running start on a breakaway to her advantage. Candace Parker is the reigning WNBA high flier, but she needs to build up a head of steam to dunk. Griner dunks effortlessly while moving with the grace of a player a foot shorter.
“Brittney just brings something to the game that, honestly, I don’t think we’ve seen,” said ESPN HoopGurlz analyst Mark Lewis, who spent 23 years as a women’s college basketball assistant coach. “You can go back and look at a Candace Parker or go even further back and look at a Cheryl Miller. They changed the game, but there’s been another Cheryl Miller. I think Brittney Griner may come and go without there being another Brittney Griner for a long time.
“If Candace gets the ball on a breakaway, everybody holds their breath because maybe it’s a dunk. Brittney can get the ball on the block, drop step, and dunk — I hate this term — like a guy.”
Triple doubles
In 13 of the Cougars’ 25 games this season, Griner matched or exceeded the opponent’s point total. She has reached double figures in scoring, rebounds and blocked shots 11 times. One of those triple doubles was a 36-point, 15-rebound, 10-block, six-assist rampage that prompted College Park coach Kip Anderson to say it was “an honor just to be in the game like that with such a phenomenal player.”
“Brittney is in her own category,” said Anderson, who has spent 10 of her 27 years in coaching at the varsity level. “I have never seen a player like her. At any level. She’s got the size. She’s got the wingspan. She’s got the quickness. She has the speed. She jumps well. She has got touch on the ball. And defensively, she’s like a human flyswatter.”
Griner set a national record by swatting 25 shots in a season-opening victory against Hastings. She had 23 blocks in a victory against Elsik. Nimitz doesn’t keep an official tally of dunks, but Cougars coach Debbie Jackson guesstimates Griner has at least 45 this season.
“You just don’t see any 6-8 girls who are that athletic and agile and can play,” Eisenhower coach Anthony Watkins said. “She presents problems that you really don’t see. A coach may not see that kind of problem in his career. There’s no doubt in my mind she’s a future women’s pro basketball player. The sky is the limit for that kid.”
Switched to basketball
Her father, Raymond Griner, is 6-2. Her mother, Sandra, is 5-8. Though Brittney was a head taller than most of her grade-school classmates, her sports of choice were volleyball and soccer. On Jackson’s urging, Griner tried out for the basketball team as a 6-foot freshman and moved up to the varsity six games into the season. Griner had little idea of the sport’s finer points, and she still averaged 10.2 points and made all-district.
By the end of Griner’s sophomore year, she had shot up to 6-6 and was dunking in practice and games. She more than doubled her scoring average as a sophomore and has made across-the-board improvements in rebounding, shot-blocking, assists and steals every season since.
YouTube sensation
A YouTube video posted during Griner’s junior season has attracted more than 2.7 million viewers — among them Shaquille O’Neal, who agreed to meet with her. Griner got around to watching the video of some of her high-flying exploits for the first time after it had received about a million hits.
“I was like, ‘They made a big deal out of this?’ ” Griner said. “They should come to practice every day.”
The words came out bemusedly, not boastfully. Raymond Griner, who served in the Marines, spent 35 years working in the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Two of the staples of Brittney’s vocabulary are “sir” and “ma’am.” A strong selling point of Baylor is that Mulkey can be as strict and intense as her father.
“I don’t have any doubt in my mind about turning her over to Kim Mulkey,” Raymond Griner said. “She’s disciplined, just like I am.”
“It helps my confidence knowing people have high expectations on me,” Griner said. “I have high expectations on myself.”
Off the court, Griner is a B student who knows her way around computers. She learned to fix cars. She is a Military Channel devotee.
“I wanted to be in the Air Force,” she said. “I think I outgrew the fighter jets. I don’t think they make ’em big enough for me.”
steve.campbell@chron.com
Ellie
Nimitz High standout Brittney Griner has high expectations to match her 6-foot-8-inch frame
By STEVE CAMPBELL
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Jan. 13, 2009, 12:04AM
Brittney Griner made a grand entrance.
Griner wasn’t playing basketball that day last month at the Clear Creek High School Gym, wasn’t wearing her Nimitz Cougars uniform. She was just there to watch the Peggy Whitley Classic, yet eyes immediately bored in on her from all directions.
She’s 6-foot-8, and doctors tell her she’s still growing. She wears size-17 shoes. She has an 86-inch wingspan. The only way Griner can keep heads from turning and crowds from buzzing is to shut herself in her house, and that’s no way for a basketball prodigy to live.
A stranger pulled out a camera and started clicking off pictures. Griner smiled for the camera and laughed to herself, having made peace with her conspicuous place in the world.
“It helps a lot that I’m just real comfortable with my height,” Griner said. “Some girls when they’re tall, they have a real hard time dealing with their height and their confidence level. When I started getting tall, I just wanted to keep growing.”
Slumped into an undersize chair after a weekday practice at Nimitz, Griner grinned. In less than four years of organized basketball, she has grown eight inches vertically and light-years in on-court savvy and skill. Griner, 18, is the consensus No. 1 recruit nationally in the Class of 2009.
“I figure I can’t shrink,” Griner said, “so I might as well use my height.”
Griner is averaging 27.1 points, 12.6 rebounds and 9.4 blocks per game and shooting 68.9 percent for the state’s top-ranked Class 5A team. No, her exploits are not a litany of tall tales hatched by overactive imaginations. Griner dunks with ease. One-handed. Two-handed. Frontward. Backward. On the run. From a standing start.
“I bet you’ve never seen something like that, have you?” Baylor Bears coach Kim Mulkey said, knowing full well the answer. Mulkey has been involved in women’s college basketball for more than a quarter of a century. She is the only person to win NCAA basketball titles as a player, assistant coach and head coach. And Mulkey counts it as “a blessing” that in November Griner signed a national letter of intent to join the Baylor program next season.
“You just don’t see girls do what she does,” said Mulkey, who won a national title at Baylor in 2005. “You may not see the likes of that again in this country.”
As soon as the words left Mulkey’s mouth, she reconsidered.
“You’ll never see another one like her,” Mulkey said.
Supreme dunker
Griner doesn’t merely play above the rim. She can snatch rebounds with one hand, as she did when two players had her boxed out in a recent game against district rival Eisenhower. Around the basket and by the 3-point-line alike, Griner can swoop in on opposing shooters like a pterodactyl.
Lisa Leslie was the first player to dunk in a WNBA game, using a running start on a breakaway to her advantage. Candace Parker is the reigning WNBA high flier, but she needs to build up a head of steam to dunk. Griner dunks effortlessly while moving with the grace of a player a foot shorter.
“Brittney just brings something to the game that, honestly, I don’t think we’ve seen,” said ESPN HoopGurlz analyst Mark Lewis, who spent 23 years as a women’s college basketball assistant coach. “You can go back and look at a Candace Parker or go even further back and look at a Cheryl Miller. They changed the game, but there’s been another Cheryl Miller. I think Brittney Griner may come and go without there being another Brittney Griner for a long time.
“If Candace gets the ball on a breakaway, everybody holds their breath because maybe it’s a dunk. Brittney can get the ball on the block, drop step, and dunk — I hate this term — like a guy.”
Triple doubles
In 13 of the Cougars’ 25 games this season, Griner matched or exceeded the opponent’s point total. She has reached double figures in scoring, rebounds and blocked shots 11 times. One of those triple doubles was a 36-point, 15-rebound, 10-block, six-assist rampage that prompted College Park coach Kip Anderson to say it was “an honor just to be in the game like that with such a phenomenal player.”
“Brittney is in her own category,” said Anderson, who has spent 10 of her 27 years in coaching at the varsity level. “I have never seen a player like her. At any level. She’s got the size. She’s got the wingspan. She’s got the quickness. She has the speed. She jumps well. She has got touch on the ball. And defensively, she’s like a human flyswatter.”
Griner set a national record by swatting 25 shots in a season-opening victory against Hastings. She had 23 blocks in a victory against Elsik. Nimitz doesn’t keep an official tally of dunks, but Cougars coach Debbie Jackson guesstimates Griner has at least 45 this season.
“You just don’t see any 6-8 girls who are that athletic and agile and can play,” Eisenhower coach Anthony Watkins said. “She presents problems that you really don’t see. A coach may not see that kind of problem in his career. There’s no doubt in my mind she’s a future women’s pro basketball player. The sky is the limit for that kid.”
Switched to basketball
Her father, Raymond Griner, is 6-2. Her mother, Sandra, is 5-8. Though Brittney was a head taller than most of her grade-school classmates, her sports of choice were volleyball and soccer. On Jackson’s urging, Griner tried out for the basketball team as a 6-foot freshman and moved up to the varsity six games into the season. Griner had little idea of the sport’s finer points, and she still averaged 10.2 points and made all-district.
By the end of Griner’s sophomore year, she had shot up to 6-6 and was dunking in practice and games. She more than doubled her scoring average as a sophomore and has made across-the-board improvements in rebounding, shot-blocking, assists and steals every season since.
YouTube sensation
A YouTube video posted during Griner’s junior season has attracted more than 2.7 million viewers — among them Shaquille O’Neal, who agreed to meet with her. Griner got around to watching the video of some of her high-flying exploits for the first time after it had received about a million hits.
“I was like, ‘They made a big deal out of this?’ ” Griner said. “They should come to practice every day.”
The words came out bemusedly, not boastfully. Raymond Griner, who served in the Marines, spent 35 years working in the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Two of the staples of Brittney’s vocabulary are “sir” and “ma’am.” A strong selling point of Baylor is that Mulkey can be as strict and intense as her father.
“I don’t have any doubt in my mind about turning her over to Kim Mulkey,” Raymond Griner said. “She’s disciplined, just like I am.”
“It helps my confidence knowing people have high expectations on me,” Griner said. “I have high expectations on myself.”
Off the court, Griner is a B student who knows her way around computers. She learned to fix cars. She is a Military Channel devotee.
“I wanted to be in the Air Force,” she said. “I think I outgrew the fighter jets. I don’t think they make ’em big enough for me.”
steve.campbell@chron.com
Ellie