Detroit Pistons star Blake Griffin made a return trip to Los Angeles Saturday afternoon. It’s his first game back in Southern California since being dealt from the Clippers to Detroit last season.
Prior to the game, a video emerged that depicted Griffin blowing off Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. In fact, said video seemed to show him both ignoring Ballmer and running away from the owner as fast as possible.
In an attempt to clarify the incident after the fact, Griffin also put reporters on blast for suggesting he shunned his former owner.
“For nine years now, as soon as I am done doing my pre-game shooting, I make sure there’s a path and I take off running to the locker room,” Griffin said, via Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times. “To tweet out something like that, like what you did, I thought was kinda bulls**t.”
It’s obvious Griffin wasn’t a fan of the optics here. But the video doesn’t lie. He shunned Ballmer. There’s no other way to go about it. Own up to it and be done.
As much talking as Griffin did after the game, his play did all the talking in a 109-104 win over the Clippers. The All-Star dropped 44 points on 13-of-23 shooting.