Los Angeles Clippers superstar Blake Griffin knows a little something about stretching yourself thin during All-Star weekend. He won the dunk contest, participated in the Rookie-Sophomore Challenge as well as the All-Star game itself last year. And when he recently spoke with the media about New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin, he gave him some advice on how he should handle his weekend: It's OK it say 'no.'
Lin is scheduled to take part in Friday night's Rising Stars game, which will be his sixth game in eight night. Lin isn't participating in Saturday's skills competitions or Sunday's All-Star game but his agent Roger Montgomery has been bombarded with possible business ventures for his client and likely will have Lin in meetings throughout the wekend as well.
You may recall Blake's little stunt with KIA during the dunk contest last year, which got him unheralded press and I'm sure a nice pay check to boot. Still, he wants Lin to not see the weekend as all work and no play:
"My advice to him is to say no to things that you are unsure of unless you really, really, really want to do something. If not, don't do it."
Last year Blake went from averaging 22.8 points and 12.6 rebounds before the break and 20.5 points and 10.4 rebounds afterward. He said the busy weekend definitely had an affect on him:
"To be honest, I didn't enjoy it like I should have," Griffin said. "I didn't really get a chance to. We came off an eight-game road trip. We had been on the road 15 days straight. We got in on [Thursday] at like 2 in the morning and then everything for me started at noon on Thursday. Literally, it was from noon on Thursday to past midnight every night [All-Star weekend]. "Right after All-Star I got sick. My body shut down. I felt like I played horribly for like almost a month."
That is a large reason why Griffin chose to scale back his weekend a bit, choosing not defend his dunk contest title, with his plate already full with the Rookie-Sophomore challenge and All-Star game.
"If people think I'm ducking the dunk contest, that's fine. I need to rest first."
For more on All-Star weekend, head over to SB Nation's dedicated NBA hub. For more on the Clippers, check out Clips Nation.