LOS ANGELES – By now, everyone who follows the L.A. Clippers heard about the T-shirts produced for the free agency meeting with forward Blake Griffin that made a ton of headlines due to it's questionable nature. Marc Spears of The Undefeated tweeted out a photo of the shirt, which put a graphic of Blake Griffin in a group that featured Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, President Abraham Lincoln, President John F. Kennedy, President Barack Obama, Muhammad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi, and Albert Einstein.

Members of the media, fans, and players immediately reacted to the shirt, questioning the purpose and meaning of it. A source close to Spears told him that the shirts were meant to encourage the players to live like the people on the shirt

During Wednesday's press conference, where Griffin spoke about the decision to re-sign with the only team he's ever played for, he opened up about the controversial shirt and it's meaning to him.

“I actually didn't see it until after the meeting. I didn't notice it, actually. Something Doc had talked to us about since, probably Day 1 last year, was pioneers and he always talks about different people and, minus myself, those were the people that we used as examples. Striving to be like those people who didn't care about popular opinions or anything like that. I didn't take it as, ‘oh they're saying I'm like those people.'”

For much of the last four or five seasons, the Clippers have been been disliked and well-known as the biggest whiners of the NBA. Of course, they weren't the only ones complaining, but they were still treated worse than other teams for their complaining to the officiating. All season, however, they continued to just play their own game and avoid all the noise and the opinions of anyone outside the club.

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Griffin added that head coach Doc Rivers actually gave the team those same shirts without Griffin on them before the 2016-17 season in hopes of inspiring the players.

“Obviously, if you put a picture on the internet,” said Griffin, “in today's world, everybody needs clicks and everybody needs social media followers, that thing is going to spread. It was more of an inside thing and I understood what it meant. The shirts that we had at the beginning of the season (without Griffin on them) that Doc gave us still means a lot. It's like those are the people we should strive to be like, that's what I think.

“Pioneer can be used in a lot of different ways,” responded when asked if he considers himself an L.A. pioneer. “If you're saying a pioneer in the sense of Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela, no, absolutely not. For doing something new here, maybe. But that's not really my main concern. Trying to do the right things and keep this ship headed in the right direction.”

Griffin staying with the Clippers already puts him in some solid company (not the above) and he's hoping a quick recovery from toe surgery helps him build the necessary chemistry to go out and lead his team to a successful season.