Bob J. Griffin (; born June 24, 1950) is an American-Israeli former basketball player. He played the

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

and

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

positions. He played basketball in the

Israeli Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl ( he, ליגת העל, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is the top-tier level league of professional sports, professional competition in Israeli sports club, club basketball, making ...

from 1972 to 1979. He is now an Associate Professor of English Literature at Texas A&M University.

Biography

Bob Griffin grew up in Port Washington, on the

North Shore North Shore or Northshore may refer to: Geographic features Australia *North Shore (Sydney), a suburban region of Sydney **Electoral district of North Shore **North Shore railway line, Sydney *Noosa North Shore, Queensland * North Shore, New So ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

in New York State, and attended

Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School (commonly Paul D. Schreiber High School or Schreiber High School) is a four-year public high school in Port Washington, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is operated by the Port Washington Unio ...

('68). He is 5' 10" (180 cm) tall. He then attended Columbia University, and played for the Columbia Lions basketball team in 1969–70. Griffin dropped out of Columbia after two years, in 1970.Griffin completed his B.A. at Tel Aviv University (English and Classics; '79). He retired from basketball to go to graduate school at Yale University (English Language and Literature; M.A. '80, M.Phil. '82, Ph.D. '85). He wrote his doctoral dissertation on

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

, the 18th-century essayist, poet, lexicographer, and editor who undertook to compile the first modern English-language dictionary, and Griffin focused on the notion of reflection, a key concept for Johnson. Griffin taught

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

in Maine (1983–87) and Tel Aviv University (for 18 years; 1987–2005), and is now an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas (since 2005). Griffin married Ariela, an accountant for the Steimatzky bookstore of Yemenite heritage whom he met at a bus stop in Israel. In 1977 they had a daughter in Israel, Becky Griffin, who became an Israeli model, TV presenter, and actress, and in 1983 they had a son, Oren Griffin, who works in the Israeli high-tech sector. When he retires, Griffin plans to return to his home in Tel Aviv.

Basketball career

Visiting friends from the Columbia University basketball team who were playing in Israel, Griffin ended up playing basketball in the

from 1972 to 1979, for Maccabi Ramat Gan and Maccabi Tel Aviv. A Jewish-American, he became an

Israeli citizen Israeli citizenship law details the conditions by which a person holds citizenship of Israel. The two primary pieces of legislation governing these requirements are the 1950 Law of Return and 1952 Citizenship Law. Every Jew in the world h ...

under Israel's Law of Return. The highlight was playing for the Maccabi Tel Aviv team that won the

1976–77 FIBA European Champions Cup The 1976–77 FIBA European Champions Cup was the 20th edition of the European top-tier level professional basketball club competition FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague). The Final was held at the Pionir Hall, in Belgrade, Yugos ...

. In the semifinals, he recalled: "No one gave us a chance to win. The most that people (in Israel) were hoping for was that we didn't lose by too much. CSKA Moscow (the

Russian Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

team) had beaten

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, one of the elite teams in Europe, by 20 points the previous week in Madrid.... Our attitude was, maybe they beat Madrid last week, but they still have to beat us this week." Maccabi Tel Aviv beat the Russian Red Army 91 to 79. Griffin won three Israeli titles with the team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffin, Bob 1950 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from New York (state) Bowdoin College faculty Columbia Lions men's basketball players Ironi Ramat Gan players Israeli men's basketball players Israeli people of American-Jewish descent Jewish American sportspeople Jewish Israeli sportspeople Jewish men's basketball players Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. players People from Port Washington, New York Point guards Shooting guards Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University alumni Texas A&M University faculty Yale University alumni Columbia University alumni 21st-century American Jews