Stepping out of brother’s shadow a steep climb for Taylor Griffin

This is why Robert Barone was so jealous of Ray.

It’s a tough thing, escaping shadows. The harder you try, the darker it seems to grow. There must be times when Taylor Griffin feels as if he’s dribbling in Antarctica.

Griffin isn’t entirely trapped, but he might never again know a time when the basketball gods shine their light of acceptance on him before his freakishly talented younger brother. Weaker minds might dwell on it, but not a guy intent on reinventing himself as a player. Not a guy trying to survive.

Taylor is bunched together in a basement of NBA hopefuls, working and searching and wondering how to distinguish himself enough that he might at least be allowed to view the first floor. His brother is already a penthouse resident.

But while Taylor Griffin doesn’t have the skill and size of No. 1 overall draft pick Blake, he does, like his brother, own a trait that not even the most detached general manager can miss. The guy plays his tail off.

He is a second-round draft pick (No. 48 overall) of the Phoenix Suns and here for summer league trying to impress enough so that he won’t be watching Blake with the Clippers next season, but rather playing against him. It won’t be easy to make it by any stretch. Robert Barone had a better chance of Mom loving him more than Ray.

"Taylor is going to have to play a different game here than in college," said Dan Majerle, who’s coaching the Suns’ summer team. "He’s smart and athletic and a hard worker, so he has that going for him. But he’s going to have a hard transition."

Here’s why: Few, if any, go to sleep one night an undersized but productive power forward in college and wake up a competent small forward in the NBA. You don’t doze off after seasons of attacking the rim from a few feet and guarding opposing post players for Oklahoma to suddenly stir as a catch-and-shoot perimeter threat who can guard Shawn Marion or Andrei Kirilenko or Josh Howard with great success, much less those named LeBron and Carmelo. You don’t take years to master Spanish and expect to become fluent in German overnight.

It’s tough. It’s really tough. The 6-foot-7-inch Griffin on Monday made his summer debut at Cox Pavilion and offered four points and two rebounds in 21 minutes against Dallas. He shot 1-for-5 and a few times treated an open 18-footer with the hesitancy of a teenage boy approaching the head cheerleader.

In college, he would have put the ball to the floor and drove with authority. Against the quickness of an NBA small forward, he might not even get to the driving part.

Guys know the odds. They know how many guaranteed contracts a team’s roster has for next season. They know during any given summer, there are maybe one or two spots available on a particular team, that most of those in the basement are looking at an immediate future playing overseas or in the NBA’s Development League. They know deep down how unrealistic some of their dreams can be.

But the elder Griffin is not without options. He, too, is a No. 1 overall selection, the first player identified by the Harlem Globetrotters in their draft last month. There was no photo op with David Stern, no official hat to wear, no green room nerves, not even someone throwing a bucket of confetti in his face. You can’t be anxious about something you don’t know.

"Honestly, Blake was the first one that told me about it," Taylor said. "He heard about it in an interview. I didn’t know anything. I had to turn down interviews because I didn’t know what to talk about.

"I’d much rather be here. For me, this is my desire."

The shadow also played Monday, over in the big boys gym of the Thomas & Mack Center before 3,000 or so animated fans. The shadow went for 27 points and 12 rebounds and made 11 of 18 shots in about 30 minutes. The shadow is going to be really, really good. Taylor Griffin, meanwhile, doesn’t worry if the darkness persists. He got used to it long ago. He’s too busy trying to discover his own sliver of light.

"Each step of the way, I’ve gotten to where I’ve reached my goals," he said. "The first part was coming to workouts, impressing teams and getting drafted. I got that. The next step is to make a roster."

The next step is brutal because, while the first floor might be in sight, it’s a long, difficult climb.

Just ask Ray Barone’s brother.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 702-383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com. He also can be heard weeknights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on "The Sports Scribes" on KDWN (720 AM).