On October 27, 2010, the terrible LA Clippers faced the mediocre Portland Trailblazers. This would have been an ordinary, unexciting matchup, but for one saving grace. The Staples Center was sold out and the air was abuzz with more excitement than the Clippers faithful had seen in decades, if ever. For this was the debut game of their franchise savior. The number one overall pick was finally making his long-awaited debut in front of the Clipper faithful. There were only the greatest of expectations for him. Against all odds, the rookie totally delivered that night, with 20 points and 14 rebounds. The fact that the Clippers lost barely even mattered because everyone now knew the truth: Blake Griffin was the real deal. If this is really it for Blake Griffin’s career, let’s take a look back at LA’s finest.
LA’s Finest: A Blake Griffin Career Retrospective
Oklahoma Origins
Though he would one day be the face of the team that embodied glitz and glamor, and he would go on to be a Hollywood fixture, Griffin came from rural beginnings. He grew up in Oklahoma back when OKC wasn’t big enough for a basketball team. However, he was surrounded by athletic greatness from day 1. His father, Frank Griffin, was a basketball and track star at Northwestern Oklahoma State. His best friend was Sam Bradford, who would one day be the number one overall pick in the NFL draft. Griffin was seemingly destined for athletic stardom, as he was a multi-sport star in football, baseball, and of course, basketball.
Griffin won multiple state championships in high school and his efforts earned him the title of a top-15 basketball prospect in the nation. He was a McDonald’s All-American and was recruited by powerhouse programs such as Duke, Texas, North Carolina, and Kansas. However, he chose to stay close to home and elected to commit to Oklahoma. He was every bit as successful in college as he was in high school. During his freshman year, he averaged 14.7 points and 9.1 rebounds. Many experts thought he could be a top 10 draft pick and encouraged him to declare for the 2008 NBA Draft.
Griffin felt he still had more to prove. So, he played another year at Oklahoma, and what a year it was. He averaged 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds, including a memorable 25-point, 21-rebound performance against Davidson, where he out-dueled another top prospect named Steph Curry. He led Oklahoma to an Elite Eight appearance. For his efforts, he was a first-team All-American and won all six National Player of the Year awards. The experts said there was no other choice to be the #1 overall pick. With his ambitions in Oklahoma realized and his status as a surefire #1 overall pick cemented, Griffin declared for the 2009 NBA Draft.
California Dreaming
Following the 2008-2009 season, the Clippers had managed to have a losing record in 16 of their last 17 seasons. They had only made the playoffs twice in 18 years and in one of those appearances, they snuck in with a 36-46 record. The Clippers were terrible. They were the widely acknowledged worst franchise in the league. They needed a franchise savior. For once, the odds broke in their favor and the lottery gave them the number one overall pick in the 2009 draft. It was a no-brainer pick. Blake Griffin was their man. The stars had aligned to give the Clippers the man who could turn the franchise around and bring them to glory. However, it was not to be. In his final preseason game before the 2009-2010 season, he injured his knee and the team announced that he would miss the entire 2009-2010 season.
However, once he did finally make his debut, he hit the ground running immediately. In his rookie year, he averaged 22.5 PPG and 12.1 RPG. He was an All-Star, a top 10 MVP candidate, and the consensus Rookie of the Year. That same year, John Wall had one of the best rookie seasons for a PG ever, and yet, the ROTY vote wasn’t even close. That’s how good Griffin was as a rookie.
He didn’t slow down in the coming years. He made All-Star and All-NBA for the next 4 years straight. Additionally, he was a top 10 MVP candidate twice and was a top 3 MVP finalist in 2013-2014. He was regarded as one of the faces of the league and one of the league’s brightest stars. With his immense individual success came team success.
Once Chris Paul arrived, the team hit superstardom. When Griffin heard of the Paul trade, he remarked “Yeah! It’s going to be Lob City.” He was right. The media dubbed them the Lob City Clippers. The Clippers made the playoffs 8 of 9 years during Griffin’s tenure. They won 50+ games every year from 2012-2017. For the first time ever, they were the talk of LA. The Lakers were terrible during that time period and the Clippers were better than ever. Griffin became a Hollywood star, appearing in national commercials regularly and pursuing acting during the offseason. Against all odds, Griffin lived up to the hype and turned the Clippers around.
It seemed like Griffin was going to be a Clipper forever. However, it didn’t turn out that way
Motor City Miracle
Following years of injuries, the Clippers began to grow dissatisfied with Griffin. They wanted someone younger and less injury-prone. On January 29, 2018, the Clippers traded Griffin to the Detroit Pistons for a haul of assets that would later assist them in trading for Paul George. Many people expected it to be a sunset for the veteran. He was aged and injury-prone. The Pistons were terrible and were fresh off their 9th losing season in 10 years. However, Griffin had other plans.
It didn’t matter to him that the Pistons were terrible. He had already turned around one historically terrible franchise and he believed that he could do it again. Despite what the Clippers brass believed, he thought that he had more left in the tank. So, he went to work.
Against all odds, he pulled off one last great season. He averaged a career-high 24.5 PPG, 7.5 RPG, and 5.4 APG. He was an all-star and made All-NBA for the last time. Despite a supporting cast made up of the likes of Andre Drummond, Reggie Jackson, and Wayne Ellington, Griffin put the team on his back and carried them to the playoffs for only the second time in the last 10 years. It was a spectacular season from a player that many thought was “over the hill” or “washed up.” The fact that Griffin was able to turn back the clock and recapture the magic was truly a Motor City miracle.
This isn’t an article about his decline, so I will only say one sentence about it. His knees essentially gave out on him and he spent three forgettable seasons as a bench player on the dysfunctional super team Nets and the Jays-led Celtics before ultimately hanging them up and calling it a career following the 2022-2023 season.
Last Word on Blake Griffin’s Career
Let’s take it back to the beginning. Blake Griffin, the #1 overall pick with the weight of an entire franchise’s hopes and dreams on his shoulders. Griffin famously once said: “You have to fall in love with the process of becoming great.” While it might have seemed to many that Griffin was destined for greatness from the beginning, Griffin’s commitment to that process is what enabled him to succeed at every level of his career.
On October 27, 2010, the words “Lob City” hadn’t been coined yet and his motor city miracle was a decade in the future. Nobody could have known if he was going to live up to the seemingly impossible level of hype. But, Griffin was confident in his process and he knew that he was going to be great. So, if this is really it for Blake Griffin’s career, let’s take a moment to look back, remember, and appreciate LA’s finest.
