Clippers' Eric Gordon is no laughingstock

The basketball magazine definitely fell into the wrong hands the other day in the Clippers' locker room, inspiring hilarity and providing fodder for rookie-on-rookie teasing for hours.

Days, maybe.

It looked like a foreign comic book and featured an overblown caricature of Clippers guard Eric Gordon. His head was huge, like some giant balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Gordon, 20, seemed to take the teasing in stride from fellow rookies DeAndre Jordan and Mike Taylor. After all, he has been dubbed "The Hobbit." So what's a flimsy comic book after all that?

"At first, he wasn't handling it too good," Taylor said of rookie hazing this season. "I think now he's comfortable with it."

Funny, but that's almost an accurate assessment about Gordon -- on the court -- in what has been a standout rookie season that exceeded expectations before the All-Star break.

The seventh pick overall in the 2008 draft, Gordon has been one of the bright spots in a checkered Clippers season dotted with injuries.

January belonged to the multifaceted Gordon, and now comes the homestretch as he looks to avoid the Rookie Wall and tries to put down building blocks for 2009-10.

Gordon averaged 21.9 points per game in January and was selected the Western Conference rookie of the month; he also became the Clippers' go-to guy (admittedly, a small selection given the injuries to marquee players) and entered the conversation for NBA rookie of the year. If he was not on the same page as the likes of Chicago's Derrick Rose and Memphis' O.J. Mayo, then he at least appeared in the same chapter.

"Derrick's got the ball in his hand the whole game," said Neil Olshey, Clippers assistant general manager. "So does O.J. for the most part. Eric's out there with All-Stars. He's sharing the ball with Baron Davis, Zach [Randolph], Marcus Camby and Al Thornton.

"Were Eric getting the same number of attempts and touches in attack mode, as he did in January, for the rest of the year, then I think February, March and April would be up for grabs, believe me."

Said Jordan: "He's a monster."

The 6-foot-4 Gordon is averaging 14.7 points per game, and had 41 points, a Clippers rookie record, against Oklahoma City.

He played more than 20 minutes only once in his first 11 games, and didn't grab a spot in the starting lineup until Nov. 24, after Cuttino Mobley's departure and Ricky Davis' knee injury.