Eric Griffin, who was signed by the Mavericks in 2014 and played for the Futures Team during the 2015 NBA D-League All-Star Game, has been charged with attempted murder following an incident that allegedly took place on April 27.
Griffin, 25, and Daquan Lundy, 23, are accused of shooting at a man identified as Treavor Glover, 24, outside of an apartment building in Orlando, Florida. Glover claims that two men with significantly different heights—Griffin is listed at 6-foot-9, while his alleged accomplice is reportedly 5-foot-7—approached him, with the taller man firing two shots at him and the shorter man firing one. He told police he tried to flee the scene after the initial rounds were fired but claims he tripped when one of the men fired four shots from a close distance, with one scraping Glover on the forehead. Glover does not believe it was a robbery attempt.
In an interview with police after the incident, the alleged victim revealed that his girlfriend's brother was shot to death during a drive-by shooting on April 16. He told police that there may be a connection between that incident and the incident involving Griffin.
Griffin and Lundy were arrested on Friday and are currently being held in jail without bail. Griffin has pleaded not guilty.
While you may not be familiar with Griffin as a result of his limited NBA experience, he was an All-Conference player in the Big South for Campbell University in 2012. He wasn't selected during that year's NBA Draft, but he latched on with a team in Europe after a brief cameo for the Lakers' summer squad. He then sat out a season after he was unable to make the Heat's roster the following summer, and in 2014, Griffin inked a contract with the Mavericks and was sent to play for the D-League's Texas Legends where he was an All-Star.
On Friday, just hours before his arrest, Griffin talked to SB Nation about his NBA ambitions and said, "I genuinely believe that I have the ability to play in the league and contribute on a winning team. I don't have control over when a team will call, so the only thing I can do is continue to work hard. When I get the opportunity, I'm going in."
The news about Griffin's arrest comes just one day after his fellow D-League player Keith Appling was arrested for allegedly carrying a loaded AK-47 into a strip club in Dearborn, Michigan.
