Blake Griffin might be one of the greatest players in the history of the Los Angeles Clippers, helping the franchise climb into relevance in the 2010s. Griffin was unceremoniously traded to the Detroit Pistons in the winter of 2018. This was six months after the Clippers signed him to a five-year, $171 million contract.
Griffin called the trade to Detroit the defining moment of his career in a recent appearance on Carmelo Anthony’s ‘7 PM in Brooklyn’ podcast.
“My first true free agency where I had a decision, I chose to go back to the Clippers. Six months later I was in Detroit. I look back at that, and people are like, ‘It must be awful to go from LA to Detroit. Nah, because it was a very defining moment for me and my career. To be away from that and show people that I’m playing 75 games, as much as I possibly can. I’m playing as hard as I can. I’m trying to take that team to the Playoffs. It was a proud moment for me.”
“It was the first time where it was like, you don’t have LA, you don’t have Chris Paul next to you. You don’t have all these guys and you’ve got to go it. I’m thankful for my years with CP, with all those guys, because I learned how to bring people along. I learned how to be the leader every night. In LA, I could have an off night. CP might get 30, JJ could go off for 25, DeAndre might have 20 and 20, Jamal Crawford could get 30. Detroit was different, a different dynamic.”
“That moment of re-signing with the Clippers, was a real fork in the road for me because I could have left. But I wouldn’t change anything if I had to do it again.”
Griffin signed a five-year, $171 million contract extension with the Clippers in the summer of 2017. This was after the team had traded Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets, so many assumed that the team would re-tool around Griffin.
Unfortunately, the injuries that piled up on the star forward led to the Clippers deciding midway through the season that they would rebuild, trading Griffin, Willie Reed, and Brice Johnson for Avery Bradley, Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, a future-protected first-round draft pick, and a future second-round draft pick.
He’s still on frosty terms with many members of the Clippers, including team owner Steve Ballmer, for how that situation was handled. There’s still a chance fences can be mended if the Clippers decide to retire Griffin’s jersey, but there don’t seem to be any indicators that they will do that anytime soon.
His injury struggles continued in Detroit as they would miss the 2018 Playoffs due to Griffin missing multiple games. He lived up to his promise the next season, dragging the Pistons to the 2019 NBA Playoffs by averaging 24.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 5.4 assists. He was named an All-Star and an All-NBA selection.
That was the last time Detroit was in the Playoffs, getting swept as the No. 8 seed against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round.
Blake Griffin showed tremendous development in his game while on the Clippers, becoming one of the best on-ball forwards in the NBA by rapidly improving his shooting and playmaking skills. Unfortunately, his injury-riddled body kept breaking down before the Pistons bought him out of the final two years of his contract in 2020.
Griffin became an NBA role player after that, spending two seasons with the Brooklyn Nets before joining the Boston Celtics in 2022-23. He retired after that season was over, content with his 13-year NBA career where he established himself as a legend of the sport.
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