J-Speaks: The Stellar Return For A Former L.A.Clipper

In the summer of 2017, the Los Angeles Clippers re-signed All-Star forward Blake Griffin to a five-year $173 million deal to be the face of their franchise with the departure of perennial All-Star Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets. He was traded on Jan. 29, 2018 to the Detroit Pistons in a six-player deal. This weekend he made his first appearance as a visitor back to the place he called home for eight seasons and made sure that he was not forgotten. 

Griffin, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft out of the University of Oklahoma by the Clippers scored 44 points on 13 for 23 shooting, including 5 for 13 from three-point range and 13 for 14 from the free throw line in leading the struggling Pistons (18-23) to a 109-104 win at the Clippers (24-18). The five-time All-Star also had eight boards, five assists and three steals. His fellow front court mate in All-Star Andre Drummond had 20 points and 21 rebounds on the afternoon, his NBA-leading ninth game of at least 20 points and 20 boards and fellow former Clipper Reggie Bullock had 17 points on 5 for 7 from three-point range with seven rebounds. 

“There was a lot of hype coming into this game and I was looking forward to it, but I’m glad it’s over,” Griffin, who helped lead the Pistons to just their second win in their last 12 games said to the media after the win. “The next time I come it won’t be as crazy.” 

Right from the opening tip Griffin was locked in as he scored 15 in the opening period and had 26 total points in the opening half as the Pistons led 65-54 at the break. 

Griffin’s triple to start the third and a basket by Drummond raised the lead to 16. He also had a one-handed dunk that reminded the fans in attendance at Staples Center of the “Lob City” days of him, Paul, and current Dallas Maverick DeAndre Jordan. 

The Pistons led by as many as 16 before the Clippers made a comeback that just fell short. 

There was one rough moment in Griffin’s return when Clippers owner Steve Ballmer went over to shake his former player’s hand during pregame and Griffin ran off to the visitor’s locker room. 

It was a tweet Michael Lee of “The Athletic” @MrMichaelLee over the weekend which said, “Can’t tell a dude he’s a Clipper for life. Then trade him to Detroit six months later & expect a handshake. Business is business. Blake Griffin ignored him, ran off & gave Steve Ballmer & the Clippers the business with 44 pts.” 

“For nine years now, soon as I’m done with my pregame shooting, I make sure there’s a path and I take off running to the locker room and I don’t stop running” he said. “A lot of you know that. A lot of you have been here for a long time. A lot of you have seen me do that before. So, I don’t change that for anybody.”

“To tweet out something like that like what he did I thought was kind of [expletive] because you know that but that what it was plain and simple. It wasn’t anything planned. Every single game I’ve done this for I don’t know how long.” 

Regardless of whether Griffin wanted to shake hands with Mr. Ballmer or not one thing is undeniable is what Griffin did in his eight seasons with the Clippers. 

After sitting out his official rookie season because of injury, he came back and won the 2011 Kia Rookie of the Year. Was selected as an All-Star five times and along with Paul, and Jordan turned the Clippers into a perennial loser into a legitimate championship contender. 

They made the playoffs his last six full seasons, with the last five coming on the heels of 50-plus wins in the regular season, which is something Clippers head coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers really emphasized before the game with longtime Clippers play-by-play man Ralph Lawler. 

“When you put make the playoffs six years in a row really, and with the Clippers and you put that together that means something,” Rivers said.

Rivers added, “It doesn’t equate to being the winner because we didn’t do that but it equates to winning. Blake was a part of that. Now when you hear our name you don’t think of those bad Clippers before Blake.” 

Rivers also said that Griffin along with Paul and Jordan are the reasons he wanted to be the head coach of the Clippers. 

Individually Griffin climbed the charts of the Clippers all-time stats. Only Randy Smith (12,735) scored more points all-time than the 10,863 by Griffin. Griffin finished third on the Clippers all-time rebounding list at 4,686, behind current Philadelphia 76ers’ President Elton Brand (4,710) and Jordan (7,988). He also finished No. 5 in assists at 2,133 trailing former Laker great Norm Nixon (2,540), Gary Grant (2,810), Randy Smith (3,498) and Paul (4,023). Also, only future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, who spent his entire career of 20 seasons with the Clippers bigger better older brother the Lakers has scored more career points (16,161) at Staples Center than the 6,137 by Griffin, according to NBA advanced stats. 

In speaking to ESPN.com’s Kevin Arnovitz, Griffin said in reflection of his eight seasons with the Clippers and the impact he had on one of the league’s most unsuccessful franchises saying, “I’m proud to be part of the rebranding of the franchise…People don’t think about the Clippers today the way they did…Tons of people were saying, ‘You don’t want to go to the Clippers.’ That’s all I heard, and not only did I turn out okay, I had moderate success in the one place where they literally called it ‘The Clippers curse.’ ”

Yes, it was a difficult decision to decide to trade the most important figure in Clippers history but as the writing was on the wall that this team was going to go no further than when the made it to the Western Conference Semifinals in 2012, 2014 and 2015 it just seemed that if they were going to make a move it was last season. 

The trade that they made with the Pistons was a rare case of the trade working out for both teams. 

In the case of the Pistons they were able to get their first legitimate superstar since they drafted Hall of Famer Grant Hill back in the middle of the 1990s. 

“When I watch Blake in Detroit, he’s having an opportunity to flourish,” former Clipper Ryan Hollins said on “Clippers Live Pregame.” “I don’t think his talents were ever utilized with the Clippers that you seen in Detroit now.” 

“He’s turned into somewhat of a point forward. He’s got the ball in his hands a lot. He’s shooting the three-ball at a high clip. He’s getting the usage rate that he could never be here in L.A.” 

For the Clippers that trade brought them three key parts of their roster in Tobias Harris, who had his ups-and-downs in the “Motor City” but has blossomed in the “City of Angels” and has a big payday coming when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this season. Two-time NBA All-Defensive selection in Avery Bradley is healthy and has added depth to the Clippers backcourt. That First-Round pick the Clippers turned into Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the No. 11 overall pick out of the University of Kentucky, who has shown he is the lead guard of the present and future. Reserve center Boban Marjanovic has been a major contributor to them this season when he has gotten minutes. 

Also, the Clippers with getting Griffin’s high salary of the books of the front office they will now have some serious cap flexibility this off-season to go out and not only get one but possibly two prime time players to add to their roster. 

“It was a great trade for us. It was a great trade for Detroit as well,” Rivers said. “They needed a star and they got one.” 

Clippers President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank echoed those same feeling sayings about the trade, “I think everyone has achieved their goals out of this trade. We’re extremely happy with the players we got in return. I know Detroit is extremely happy with Blake. When trades happen, they’re very hard.” 

On Saturday afternoon, the most important player in the history of the Los Angeles Clippers returned as an opponent for the first time and he gave his former team the business. 

That aside this trade all be it a difficult one for the Clippers, this trade late into the beginning of 2018 gave them a jump start to their solid season to this point being in the hunt for the playoffs and for their future as mentioned they will have a lot of options to improve their team this summer with great salary cap flexibility. 

For the Pistons, all be it they are struggling after a solid start to this season, they acquired last season a legitimate superstar who right now is playing some of the best basketball of his career and looks every bit like a player that can be not only an All-Star again but a guy that can hopefully turn the Pistons into not only a perennial playoff participant but hopefully a championship. We shall see. 

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 1/9/19 3 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN with Amin Elhassan, Chiney Ogwumike, and Byron Scott; 1/12/19 3 p.m. edition of “Clippers Pregame Live,” presented by Carmax on FOX Sports Prime Ticket with Jeanne Zelasko, Ryan Hollins, Corey Maggette and Ralph Lawler; 1/13/19 7 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” presented by Kia with Chris Miles, David Griffin, and Brendan Haywood; 1/14/19 3 p.m. edition "NBA: The Jump" on ESPN with Jorge Sedano, Kevin Arnovitz, and Paul Pierce; www.nba.com/games/20190112/DETLAC#/recap; https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAC/leaders_career.html; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Los_Angeles_Clippers_seasons; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Griffin#injury-plagued_season_(2015-18).