Master of Puppets

Sports Illustrated writer Luke Winn has an interesting online profile of Oklahoma's Blake Griffin and Frank Matrisciano, the San Francisco-based trainer who helped turn the All-American into a lean, mean, basketball-playing machine by introducing him to a mental-control concept called, swear to God, the "Puppetmaster." How does it work? Well, the process is as startling as its sobriquet:

When USC's Leonard Washington punched Griffin in the groin, Utah's Luka Drca tripped him, umpteen players elbowed him, Ali flipped him and Michigan's Manny Harris undercut him, Griffin stayed in control of the situation. Matrisciano said Griffin was able to do this because he and his brother have the mental discipline of 'robots,' allowing them not only to stay in control, but also plow through workouts that had caused umpteen NBA players to quit the training programs

The trick is to suffocate all human emotion, an icky personal philosophy that would make even Ayn Rand hold back the edge of her gown. Griffin, though, laps this shit up, then begs for seconds. Matrisciano, who, according to Winn, "has no listed number, no Web site and has never allowed his full face to be photographed," gets through to Griffin with motivational lines like this: "You're either a puppet on the court, or you're the puppetmaster" and "You're either allowing someone else to control you, or you're the one in control." 

I'm now officially terrified of Blake Griffin, and somewhat relieved to have his Oklahoma team on my list of 13.