Nathaniel Griffin is among the most well-respected people in the St. Louis basketball community for many years.
A head coach at various levels of competition throughout his career, crafted successful programs at Wellston, Normandy, and North Tech high schools. He continues to coach in competitive men’s leagues around the city.
He and Brandon Rigmaiden, another outstanding basketball genius, are doing an excellent job of running the TruVision basketball program, which fields youth and adult grassroots teams.
When he is not coaching basketball, Griffin has another responsibility – he is the mayor of the City of Wellston. In all my years of knowing him through basketball, I don’t think I’ve ever called him Nate. It’s always “Hello, Mayor.”
In the past year, Griffin introduced a new basketball endeavor to the St. Louis area. He is the co-owner of a new semi-pro franchise, named appropriately, the St. Louis Griffins. It was a nice touch to name the team after Griffin, which reminds me of the late Paul Brown, founder and first head coach of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League.
The team just completed its inaugural season in The Basketball League. Griffin is also the head coach with Rigmaiden right at his side.
“We have a lot of great players right here in St. Louis that may not get a chance to play professionally if they don’t make it in the NBA or overseas,” Griffin said. “The TBL has given St. Louis players an opportunity to get paid playing professional basketball right here in town.”
The league was established in 2018 with eight teams and has grown into a 49-team league with representatives throughout the nation. The teams compete in the East, Central, Midwest and West Divisions.
It did not take long for the Griffins to make their mark in the TBL. In their first season, the Griffins finished with a 16-8 regular season, won the Midwest Conference championship and Eastern Regional title. They lost a competitive TBL Championship best of three series to the Potawatomi Fire, which is one of the league’s most established franchises.
It was quite a debut season for the Griffins, who featured several players who were former prep standouts from the St. Louis area. They traveled all over the country and represented the St. Louis area very well by playing winning basketball. But, if you know Griffin, you should not be surprised with the initial success of his team. Whenever he gets involved with anything on the basketball side, it’s going to be a well-run and well-organized outfit.
“It was gratifying to get all the way to the championship round in our first year,” Griffin said. “We were playing well established teams with players from all over the country. But all of our players were from St. Louis. And to see a team of St. Louis players compete at a national level was special to see.”
The Griffins played their home games at Jennings High School, and they created quite an atmosphere for the fans. In addition to some great basketball, there was entertainment and a raucous fan base that provides a great home-court advantage.
On the court, the Griffins were an offensive machine that averaged well over 100 points a game. Many players shared the offensive load with the leader being former Madison Prep standout Martavian Payne, who averaged 20 points a game. The 6’3” Payne has been a scoring machine at every level he’s competed at throughout his career. He was selected to the TBL All-Star Team for his efforts.
Corey Boyd, a 6’8” forward, who was a former standout at Miller Career Academy, averaged 15 points and a team-high 10 rebounds a game. Former McCluer North High and University of Arkansas standout B.J. Young averaged 14 points a game.
Other standout players for the Griffins include former Alton High standout Marcus Latham, who averaged 14.5 points a game. Tavares Sledge averaged 13 points and six rebounds a game while Timmy Goodwin averaged 12 points a game. Guard Nisean Rigmaiden led the team in assists while guards Ranell Crossland and Miles Nettles were solid all-around players.
