Blake Griffin seemed destined for another five years in Los Angeles after the L.A. Clippers signed him to a five-year, $173 million deal and infamously pointed to the banners in hopes to make him a lifelong franchise player. The contract would have kept him in the City of Angels until age 33, likely getting through the peak of his career.
Yet midway through the season, the Clippers decided to part ways with their star, trading him to the Detroit Pistons prior to the trade deadline and ending a relationship nine years in the making after promising heaven and earth for their former No. 1 pick.
“You always hear guys say that, ‘Basketball is a business,’ and all that,” Griffin told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “It’s so much different when you have had a relationship with a certain amount of people for so long and been at a place for so long. Someone always promises you this is what we are doing and six months later …
“It shows people’s true colors. Other than that, at the end of the day, you have to realize it’s a business.”
The Clippers seemed utterly committed to Griffin, making this move all the more shocking for the entire NBA — a move which begged to question just how much of a free agency pitch is the club's true intentions and how much of it is just a strategy to reel a player in.
The 29-year-old was evidently fighting feelings upon his arrival in Detroit, half betrayed by a team that had made such tall promises, and half glad a team was willing to make such a blockbuster trade for him.
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