Blake Griffin Done for Season

It seems like only yesterday -- actually, the end of last month -- that Blake Griffin was looking forward to playing his first regular-season games.

It was supposed to be a matter of weeks, which would've put his putative return right around ... Wednesday, actually.

Well, instead, the Clippers have announced that the No. 1 overall pick is done for the season:

After experiencing some discomfort during his recently-accelerated rehabilitation program, Clippers' forward Blake Griffin was examined Tuesday afternoon by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles. As a result of that examination, it has been determined that the healing in his left patella area has not improved to the expected required level. Griffin will undergo a surgical procedure in the near future, with a recovery prognosis of four to six months.

Our sympathies go out to Griffin, his family, and especially the Clippers, who would've greatly strengthened their playoff chances with Griffin in the lineup. They also stood to gain some flexibility, financial or otherwise, by dealing Marcus Camby -- no longer such a no-brainer should that opportunity present itself.

Griffin was thought to be head and shoulders above the rest of last summer's draft class, in part due to the ongoing obsession with tall people, especially athletic ones. We shouldn't jump to make an Greg Oden comparison, not in the least because Kevin Durant is really tall, while all the guards that have sparkled as rookies this season are short. Still, it's worth noting that again; we have a big man succumbing to injury, and smaller players starring from the get-go. Maybe size isn't such an asset after all.

The game has been getting smaller for a few seasons; the draft has been one of the last holdouts. Seeing as big men are less structurally sound than other players, and thus more likely to be injured, you have to wonder if future lottery teams might take a player's height into consideration as a negative.