Blake Griffin and a Green Screen! Clippers Media Day

Our own Steve Perin, of SBN’s excellent Clips Nation, was in attendance at media day for the Clippers, and had a nice account of what went on. A sample:

I won’t try to give you a play-by-play of what went on. I will say that the event had an inauspicious start when a power outage hit downtown LA at 11:57 AM (the official start of media day was set for noon). It was hard not to think of the Clippers as a cursed team as we sat there in the dark of Staples Center – Kevin suggested that it must surely have been the Hebrew God smiting the Clippers for planning their Media Day on Yom Kippur – but after six minutes the power was back on and the festivities got under way, so I guess Yahweh wasn’t so pissed after all, just a little irked.

Unfortunately I was never able to connect to the wireless network. Maybe the power outage fried the wireless router. Maybe I was told the wrong password. At any rate, I wasn’t able to connect, which is why you guys didn’t get any updates during the day.

As I mentioned in a comment, although I did not receive an actual press credential today, it seems as if it is going to happen. The Clippers photographer (the same one taking publicity shots for the players) took my head shot for a badge. So that seems like a good sign.

See? Bloggers can have credentials! And he wasn’t the only “web logger” in attendance, as True Hoop’s Kevin Arnovitz was there to report, as well:

A few observations from Staples Center:

Baron Davis looks fantastic, a shadow of his 2008 self. How did he get in such good shape over the summer?

"Crack," Davis said in jest, before attributing his svelte physique to a summer regimen that had him either in the gym or in Asia — both sure-fire ways to drop LBs.

Nobody professes to be more excited about Davis’ conditioning than Mike Dunleavy. "At times last season I thought — because of conditioning — that he got tired and settled for too many 3-point shots," Dunleavy said. "I’ve been in the gym with him and he’s worked all summer."

Dunleavy recounted a playoff series he called while Baron was still with Charlotte. "Power forward/point guard" was how Dunleavy remembered describing Baron at the time, a nod to Baron’s ability to use size and strength to overpower smaller PGs.

So, yeah: B-Diddy was doing crack all summer to drop some extra pounds. Pretty exhaustive strategy, although I think Dr. Leo Spaceman would have recommended crystal meth. In case, I need more Baron Davis in my life. (And power forward/point guard is the best description I’ve ever heard for him. Just perfect.)