Sometimes bad publicity is indeed bad publicity.

The Los Angeles Clippers didn’t just bring in Blake Griffin for a workout on Saturday, they put him on display. But somehow the dog and pony show became solely about the manure.

After the Clippers won the lottery, they immediately plastered a picture of the former Oklahoma star on the team web site. Coach and general manager Mike Dunleavy quickly proclaimed, “Clearly, we’re taking Blake Griffin.” While the team has backed off that admission a bit – thus leaving trade options open – there is little doubt about their enthusiasm over suiting up the Sooner in a red, white, and blue uniform.

The Clips invited a handful of media members and season ticket holders, including actor Matthew Lillard, to watch Griffin dunk, shoot, and dribble. He was brilliant in two of those three areas. After enamoring the small crowd on hand at the Clippers practice facility with his athleticism, Griffin started shooting jumpers. Or, more aptly, he started missing jumpers.

Miss after miss after miss.

From the mid-range to the free throw line, these weren’t contested shots and they weren’t launched from beyond the arc. But they were coming from the man who won every major national player of the year award, including NaismithLives.com's.

Miss after miss after miss.

The workout was obviously drenched in irony considering just about every scout in the league will tell you that Griffin is the only “can’t miss” prospect in this year’s draft.

Griffin closed out the festivities with an impressive ball-handling performance, but by that point there was no stopping the waterfall of jokes about him building a house out of bricks.

And, of course, any jokes involving the Clippers ultimately come back to team owner Donald Sterling.

On draft day, Griffin will still be selected first overall and it will still be the Clippers making that pick. But this public relations hit didn’t have to happen. One can only wonder why the Clippers would smugly sell the media and the team’s die hard fans on Griffin’s greatest weakness.

Consequently, what was slated to be a coming out party for a player who doesn’t even belong to them yet, became just another in a long line of embarrassing moments in Clips history. Go figure that this one should come while L.A.’s other basketball team is three wins away from celebrating another NBA title.