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It has been well-documented that All-NBA point guard Chris Paul’s departure from the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2017 free agency period was not all peaches and cream. Particularly his relationship with All-Star forward Blake Griffin. The bad blood between Paul and the franchise nearly came to a head in his first visit back to the Staples Center during the 2017-18 season. Things got heated during a matchup between the Houston Rockets and Clippers which nearly spilled over into the locker room once the game had ended. A Rockets player who remains unnamed to this day discovered a secret door that led into the Clippers locker room at which point a group of Houston’s players ventured inside to approach members of the team. Blake Griffin spoke on what happened after the incident occurred.
“We were where we were supposed to be,” Griffin said to Reporters via “SLAM”. “We were in our locker room. So, whatever happens, over there, I mean, we can’t control what anybody else does. We control what we did. Everybody was in our seats. That’s it. You should ask them.”
The incident also led to one of the funniest segments of “Inside the NBA” ever:
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Nets Blake Griffin Details Alleged Beef With Chris Paul
Despite the multiple reports of tension between Paul and Griffin, the Nets forward insists that there is no real beef between the two former Clippers stars, but rather a situation that was blown out of proportion.
“We’ve talked. We’ve played before. I think a lot of that with our team was a little blown out of proportion in my opinion. When you don’t win, things sort of get compounded. People want to write stories for clicks, not for the truth,” Griffin said after Nets shootaround on Tuesday via Kristian Winfield of the “New York Daily News”.
“I would consider both of us competitors, so there’s no like — when you’re on the floor, you’re trying to win. Obviously, we spent a lot of time together. He’s an unbelievable player who’s still playing at a very high level. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us for sure.”
DeAndre Jordan Says Clippers Had ‘Bad Luck’
That Clippers squad is widely regarded as one of the most talented teams to ever grace an NBA floor. In addition to Griffin and Paul, the Clippers also had Jamal Crawford, Austin Rivers, JJ Redick, and DeAndre Jordan, most of the aforementioned players being in their primes. They came to be known as ‘Lob City’ because of their highlight fast-break alley-oops.
Jordan, who was the starting center on that Clippers team is now playing for the other side of Los Angeles. He signed with the Lakers as a free agent this offseason after being traded by the Nets and reaching a buyout agreement with the Pistons. Jordan, who has played with his fair share of talented squads says that the Clippers falling short during the years of ‘Lob City’ was because they had bad luck.
“Obviously, as you get older you start to see different things, and honestly with the Clippers teams that we had, we had some bad luck,” Jordan said per ESPN.
The Nets will be hoping to shake off some bad luck of their own as they look to snap a four-game losing streak when they take on Paul and the Suns on Tuesday in Phoenix.
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