Lil Gregory Paulus

Graduating Duke senior PG, Greg Paulus, had a solid basketball career at Duke. He got significant minutes his first 3 years before being a bench player his senior year and having his minutes cut drastically in favor of a freshman PG from Memphis, TN and also another Sophomore guard. Paulus career began with promise. He distributed the ball well, made jumpers, and was a nice up and coming young leader. Despite his early great abilities, he was a poor defender at best and made a plethora of mistakes consistently. Paulus, began as a solid college PG with shortcomings and silly mistakes, but he never grew out of them. He is kinda like that kid that exhibits immature, mischievous behavior which is cute for a 4 year old, but no longer remains cute as a 16 year old. Paulus’ Duke Career is most known for being on a ton on posters with the likes of Danny Green and Va Tech, being a hated Duke PG, making dumb basketball mistakes, and getting benched…until now.



Just recently, reports emerged that the Green Bay Packers inquired about Greg Paulus…

That’s right sportynation. That short PG from Duke that didn’t have much of a college basketball career is supposedly getting a look in the NFL at QB. It’s got to be one of the more ridiculous things ever in sports. No?

I mean he has some credentials…I guess. He was 4 time all state in football, Gatorade NY state player of the year, and had offers to play football at the University of Miami and Notre Dame, and his brother is a pretty good QB at the University of North Carolina. He was the best QB in the nation according to some, but scouts.com had him at the #9 QB in the nation. And, he was allegedly the best PG in the nation as well. Great right? Yeah…4 and a half years ago that was great. As J.D. Salinger said, “That was then, this is now.”



QB is the most difficult position in American football. There is an excruciatingly large amount of studying, preparation, smarts, athleticism, arm strength, practice and attention to detail, necessary just compete (not to be successful, but to just compete). And, Greg Paulus lacks many of these things. The aforementioned deficiencies coupled with the glaring lack of experience suggests that this is a bad idea.

The NFL is a league where people question whether or not Michael Vick will be able to play QB ever again. (I am speaking from solely a football ability perspective and not a personal or social perspective regarding Vick.). Michael Vick excelled in football in highschool, college, and the NFL. He was the highest paid QB ever at the time. During his time in the NFL, he consistently made spectacular plays. He was one of the first persons ever to win AT Green Bay in the playoffs. He has now been out for two years. Is it not fair to say that he probably is better or more equipped to be an NFL QB (solely from an ability perspective) that Greg Paulus who played only in highschool 4 and a half years ago? I can go on and on about college players and NFL players who were perceived to be great players that didn’t pan out. Sporty nation, Ryan Leaf was widely regarded as being the best QB in his draft…OVER Peyton.



Next, the University of Michigan threw its hat in the Greg Paulus for QB sweepstakes. Michigan even offered him an athletic scholarship. Indeed, another head scratcher. Paulus only has one year of eligibility left in college. So, he would be effectively going to Michigan to play for like one season or 6 months. And, if he goes to Michigan, he has to actually play. No? Otherwise, why would you offer someone a scholarship to ride the bench for only one season?! That’s like $20,000+ for nothing. That being said, is it practical, to start someone who hasn’t played competitive football in more than 4 and a half years for only one year…one year only?! Most college QBs don’t play there first first year and Paulus has already missed spring practice, doesn’t know the plays, the Wolverines’ personnel, and hasn’t played a football game at a competitive level in 4 and a half years. Yeah, he played in highschool and did well, but he wasn’t playing anywhere near the talent that he will face at Michigan or on the next level. Who good college player didn’t dominate in highschool?!

To conclude, I want to congratulate Greg Paulus on having the opportunity to play football at the highest level in the NFL or college football. It is once in a lifetime opportunity that he has and he has it after playing 4 years of basketball at a major university. However, I have to discuss the ridiculous nature of this opportunity. That is, it is one of the most difficult positions to play full time and regularly (let alone without playing competitively for almost half a decade), Paulus is short at 6’-1” and a tiny 180 lbs, has zero athleticism, and lacks experience. And, I also want to thank Paulus for his work at contributions at Duke. And, lastly want to apologize to Packers fans…Brett Favre already did quite a bit of damage and now this. In addition to that, I want to wholeheartedly apologize to the University of Michigan Wolverine fans. They lost to teams from an immensely lower division AT HOME with a plethora of talent, have an unconvincing head coach, had a chance at Tyrell Pryor and now maybe have Greg Paulus for a year. Doesn’t seem like a program that is growing in the right direction. So so sorry Michigan. My heart goes out to you.

Sporty nation, this is my minority report. Take care.

Blake Griffin interview

Sporty nation, recently I was lucky to talk to my main man Blake Griffin over the weekend and we spoke about his draft prospects, life at OU, his game against UNC, and the fantastic Tyler Hansbrough. It was a solid interview. I got many of the PC and expected answers. Griffin seems to be a well grounded kid that doesn’t take himself too seriously and undoubtedly seems to be ready for the next step. The interesting part of the interview was the UNC/Tyler Hansbrough portion. He continuously reiterated that “Hansbrough” is the National Player of the Year."But after a brief moment corrected himself to state that "Hansbrough is the returning National Player of the Year." I immediately saw an opportunity to get interviewing gold. After all, Griffin made it a point to subtly emphasize that the chosen one aka Tyler Hansbrough won the award last year and will NOT win the award this year. So, when asked about Tyler’s greatness and whether or not he was worried that Tyler would murder him in the elite 8 game because Tyler played in the superior ACC, won national player of the year last year, is the All time leading scorer in the ACC and holds a plethora of records at UNC which is a school with some of the grandest sports history ever, and was soon to be a three time All-American, Griffin laughed hysterically. He had that laugh where you start crying and sweating and you think that your stomach is going to burst. The 6-10 Griffin was on the floor laughing incredulously!

In a particularly candid response, Griffin detailed that Tyler was “merely ok” and “fine.” I was like he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. No? Look at his credentials Blake! He was like…look, the guy is a good “college” player, but let’s not go overboard. He then proceeded to systematically dissect my points about his credentials and overall greatness.



1st, “what does being the All time leading scorer in your conference’s history truly mean?” Griffin questioned. It is a colossal thing, but you have to take into consideration the circumstance and situation. “That is, if you stay for 4 years you are bound to acuumlate more stats than one that stays at a school for 2 or 3 years like players such as Antawn Jamison, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Bob McAdoo, and MJ to name a few. So, of course Tyler would and should have that record as he is very talented and played for four years,” Griffin exclaimed.

2nd, yes Tyler won the award last year, but was he just that much better than the Big 12’s Michael Beasley last year? I was like ehh no I guess you are right Blake continue…
“Beasely played for Kansas State without the coach that he signed up to play for, without a rich recruiting base, at a school with zero basketball history, in a clearly established conference, and on a significantly worse team than Tyler.” “Beasely gave the 20-0 future national champions their first loss and rejuvenated a program single handedly.” He was not merely one cog of a loaded team.” “Beasely was the team.” He finished this point by saying, do you think UNC would have gotten murdered last year by Kansas in the final four if they had Beasely instead of Tyler and would Kansas State have been successful as they were last year with Tyler?” I was speechless which is terrible for one conducting an interview. Like I said, this guy is INTERESTING!

3rd, Griffin said, “it is not my place to determine or judge what college basketball has become when a player like Tyler Hansbrough is the last player since the immortal Patrick Ewing to be a 1st team All-American for 3 years.” But, rather he wonders why Ty Lawson was not a first team All-American. Ty Lawson was the ACC player of the year, but not a first team All-American. He said, “not too take anything away from Tyler, but Ty Lawson is there most valuable player and he makes them go.” “Without Ty, they would not be in the national championship…and that’s a fact! He said, when we gameplanned for these guys we focused on limiting Ty Lawson’s penetration and tried to keep the ball out of his hands, and limit his opportunities.” “And, honestly, we were not worried about Tyler at all and didn’t do any true gameplanning for him. We didn’t see the need to…is that bad?”

Lastly, Griffin said, “Tyler is one of the better college basketball players and has put up great numbers throughout his career, but he benefitted tremendously from his circumstance. A circumstance where the best college basketball players don’t stay in college for 4 years, where the media needs a great white player, and where he is perceived to be better than he actually is due to the immense talent surrounding him. I hate that this turned out to be a bask Tyler-fest, but you asked a question and I had to answer. Please don’t portray me in a negative light, I have nothing against Tyler, and think that he is a great guy, and player. I know that the media has a way of “creating” stories.” I assured Griffin that I wouldn’t do that, and I don’t think that I have done that.

Griffin is an insightful athlete that has true perspective which can be seen from my interview with him and the time that I spent with him. It was particularly refreshing to see someone so talented and big too not take themselves too seriously and too truly be cognizant and aware of his place and current state of college basketball. He can undoubtedly see the big picture and can take information and form informed opinions.

Sportynation, I have to come clean. I did not conduct an interview with Blake Griffin over the weekend. He was “unreachable.” But, I do believe, however, that if injected with truth serum, he would say the things that I wrote and would probably elaborate more regarding “east coast biases” and the taboo hot topic of race.



Sportynation, this is my minority report.

I promised readers that I would make my posts shorter and this is, indeed, shorter.