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Blake Griffin announced his retirement from the NBA last month, and while he spent the last several years of his career bouncing around between a few different teams, he will always be known for his electrifying run with the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Clippers are one of only two NBA teams that have not retired a jersey number. Could Griffin end up breaking the mold in Los Angeles?
Griffin was asked about it by Chandler Parsons on the Run It Back podcast, and he seemed overwhelmed by the mere suggestion of it.
“It’s obviously a huge honor. I wouldn’t turn that down,” Griffin said. “In my mind, I don’t know that I do necessarily deserve it. I haven’t had any conversations about it.”
The 35-year-old spent the first eight-and-a-half years of his career with the Clippers, making five All-Star appearances along the way. However, in spite of all of his individual accomplishments, Griffin still feels like his run in LA is incomplete.
“We ultimately didn’t truly accomplish what we wanted,” Griffin said.
He went on to add that while he isn’t expecting his No. 32 to hang in the rafters at Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as the Staples Center), but that it would be “awesome” if it happened.
Blake Griffin took the NBA by storm with the Clippers
You won’t find many players who were as exciting as Griffin during his time with the Clippers.
Griffin established himself as one of the greatest dunkers in NBA history, putting a plethora of different players on posters throughout his career. The vast majority of those monster slams came while he was in Los Angeles.
Of course, in the early stages of Griffin’s career, he was widely criticized for being “just a dunker.” His offensive repertoire was very mechanical, he was a poor free-throw shooter and he seemed to rely too heavily on his athleticism. However, as time went on, Griffin developed as a ball-handler and a passer and even become a dependable three-point shooter in the back half of his NBA tenure. He began to show signs of expanding his game during his final couple of seasons with the Clips, but he didn’t really break out in that regard until after he was traded to the Detroit Pistons midway through the 2017-18 campaign.
The University of Oklahoma product was selected by the Clippers with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2009 NBA Draft, but missed his entire rookie campaign due to a knee injury. While Griffin returned to play 80 games the following season and was very durable over the first several years of his career, injury issues would end up consuming him as he got deeper into his playing days.
From 2014-15 through 2016-17, his last three full campaigns in Los Angeles, Griffin played in 67, 35 and 61 games, respectively. Moving forward, he would only appear in 70 contests one more time, which came with the Pistons in 2018-19.
Griffin averaged over 20 points per game in six out of his seven full seasons in LA, with his best year coming in 2013-14 when he registered 24.1 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.2 steals over 35.8 minutes per game while shooting 52.8 percent from the floor and 71.8 percent from the free-throw line. He finished third in MVP voting that year for his efforts.
The Oklahoma City native would go on to make one more All-Star team after his time with the Clippers, earning a selection in 2018-19 with Detroit.
Unfortunately, Griffin and the Clips were never able to advance past the second round of the playoffs in spite of Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan also being on the roster.
Griffin also played with the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics to conclude his NBA career.
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