On a muggy evening in Honolulu, site of Clippers training camp, five-time All-Star Blake Griffin shows me his mettle in the Waikiki Beach surf. He rides a wave with his stand-up paddleboard and yells at me to follow suit: "Keep moving those arms! If you go slow, you'll fall." I go slow. I fall.
Still, Coach Griffin, 28, says I'm doing fine for a rookie, though he repeatedly credits my "low center of gravity" -- because 6-foot-10 forwards are jerks. I credit Griffin's patient but stern tutelage, leadership that will be tested this season as the Clippers seek to integrate a whopping nine new players while adjusting to the absence of Chris Paul, whose six-year term as Griffin's co-mayor of Lob City ended in June with his trade to the Rockets.