I thought I would be granted a respite after Donovan Mitchell put up enough 20-point games to surpass rookie Karl Malone in that category for the Jazz. I thought wrong. Not only are they still mentioning how many 20-pointers he has, but they’ve started talking about how many 30-point games he needs to be the Jazz-rookie record holder in that category as well! And it’s even worse than the last one, because at least Karl Malone was good and breaking a record of his means a little something. The record-holder in the 30-point stat is none other than Darrell “Dr. Dunkenstein Griffith, who ended up not being a very impactful NBA player at all.
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned the similarities between Mitchell and Griffith before, so I’ll just give a quick recap; midget-sized shooting guard explosive leapers who like to shoot lots of shots and who can blame them when they have such a pretty jumper that extends all the way out to the three-point arc.
If Mitchell ends up having a Griffith-like career, I wouldn’t say it would be a disappointment, but something more than just raw stats would be nice. Luckily, he’s definitely better than Griffith was as a rookie, and maybe close-ish to peak Dr. Dunkenstein. And if you think it’s weird that I know anything about an early 80’s player like him, it’s because I’ve got a sweet vintage vid of him scoring 40 (and frickin’ outplaying Michael Jordan) on my channel. That thing is sweet. So is this one, but that one is sweet and VINTAGE.