When Blake Griffin signed a monstrous five-year, $173 million contract to remain with the L.A. Clippers during the summer of 2017, he thought he would be a Clipper for life.
Little did he know he would be one for about seven more months.
At the end of January 2018, the Clippers traded Griffin to the Detroit Pistons in a blockbuster deal, ending the Griffin era and essentially putting a period at the end of the Lob City era, as Chris Paul had also been traded to the Houston Rockets that preceding summer.
As one would expect, Griffin was frustrated after the trade. Who wouldn't be? Imagine signing on to stay somewhere for seven years and then it only ends up lasting seven months.
Griffin was so hurt, as a matter of fact, that he did not even take the phone calls of Clippers head coach afterward, Rivers told Jovan Buha of The Athletic:
“It was hard,” Rivers said. “It’s not fun, especially when a guy wants to stay and feels like he’s part of the future. Then you call him — or at least try to call him. I actually never talked to him. He didn’t want to take any of our calls. And I get that. I’ve been around that, and I actually respect that. No problem with that one way or the other.”
“But it is hard. It is what it is. It is a business at the end of the day. The team had to do what it felt was best for the team’s future. And I was one of the guys that was in on the decision, and I agreed with it. I thought it was the right thing to do.”
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