Open Thread: Do you want Blake Griffin? Is all forgiven?
Do you even remember the feud days?
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Adrian Wojnarowski @wojespn
Among teams that are expected to be considered for Griffin's next stop, sources tell ESPN: Brooklyn, Golden State, Miami and PortlandIf on the long shot chance that Blake Griffin would want to come to GSW, would you want him?
(Honestly, he’s almost certainly going to a contender.)
His on-court performance has been grim recently…
But there’s always a chance he was borrowing the fat suit that James Harden used to smash his way out of HOU.
Ye Olde Feud
Newer fans may not remember this, but Blake Griffin used to be a Top 3 Warriors Villain, and probably not #2 or #3. I documented this thoroughly in
For your convenience, I’ve copied part of it directly inline here.
The Lob City Clippers
They threw down thrilling dunks and revitalized the Clippers franchise, and also seemed to consistently piss off everybody else. One of their biggest feuds was with our Warriors. This goes back a long time, and the early history is well summarized by Marcus Thompson II, which I condense further here:
Nov 3 2012. GSW upsets LAC. D Lee screams at Blake to Stop Flopping.
Jan 2 2013. Blake huge flop, GSW bench taunts Blake for brick 3.
Jan 5 2013. Clips blowout, Mark Jackson stares down LAC coach Vinny Del Negro.
Jan 21 2013. Blake airball 3, Steph gallops.
Oct 31 2013. LAC refuses to chapel with GSW. Bogut-DAJ shoving, ejections.
Dec 25 2013. LAC refuses chapel again. Dray ejected, calls Blake dirty. Bogut, Blake ejected. Blake calls it “cowardly basketball”. CP3, Bogut shoving at horn.
Jan 30 2014. No joint chapel again.
Mar 12 2014. Dray, Blake wrestle. Jermaine O’Neal, DAJ techs for jawing. Lee criticizes Blake postgame.
Draymond recently talked about how he thought Chris Paul was emotionally manipulating Stephen Curry, by putting him in commercials and then keeping him at bay, and Dray intentionally tried to divide them to make it a clear rivalry.
The next phase of the rivalry: the colossally weird and dramatic 2014 first round series between the Warriors and Clippers. We discussed this series in detail in my true confession, My Worst Take: Coach Mark Jackson should not be fired.
You can go there for the gory details, but some highlights include CP3 getting away with an uncalled veteran’s foul on Steph’s deciding shot, the bitter taunting after the close Game 7 loss, and the Clippers generally acting like asses while people were trying to be sympathetic to them for playing for an owner too stupid to hide his extreme racism.
From then on, the Warriors were in Maximum Tryhard Mode against the Clippers, no matter what level of burnout they had.
The Lob City Clips added fuel to the fire after the GSW 2015 title, by impolitely calling it lucky:
“The championship window in the West is so narrow,” Redick says. “Ours might only be open another couple of years. But you need some breaks. Golden State was the best team in the league, but they also had everything go right for them. They didn’t have one bad break. I don’t have any doubt about the DNA of our team.”
Rivers agrees. “You need luck in the West,” he says. “Look at Golden State. They didn’t have to play us or the Spurs. But that’s also a lesson for us: When you have a chance to close, you have to do it.”
What does Max Tryhard look like? Between the Game 7 loss in May 2014 and January 6 2018, the Warriors went 13-1 against LAC, dropping only the traditional Warriors dud in Los Angeles on Christmas Day 2014.
Many of Stephen Curry’s most famous highlights came in that stretch against Chris Paul’s team.
Also Draymond’s most famous trash talk happened against the Lob City Clippers:
Dub Nation Renders Judgment
Lob City never even made it out of the second round. A series of weird injuries and generally annoying the hell out of each other led to them never coming close to their promise.
Blake Griffin
Blake Griffin was taken #1 in the same draft that Stephen Curry fell to #7. That wouldn’t happen in a re-draft today, but Dub Nation has never had complaints about the outcome of that draft.
Blake Griffin was regularly cited as the engine of the feud, as you can see by his mention in every day of the feud calendar above. But he ended up having his career roll steadily downhill due to injuries and age. During the Lob City Selloff, Chris Paul was traded first by his demand, having tired of Doc Rivers, Blake, and Austin Rivers. Basically, the same people Dub Nation was tired of. This led to Rockets CP3 feuding with the Clippers in amusing fashion with the famous Battle of the Tunnel where CP3, Harden and others tried to use a tunnel to break into the Clippers locker room and fight Blake and Austin.
To this tragicomedy, Dub Nation replied:
January 2018, the Clippers pulled the final plug on Lob City and traded Blake to the Detroit Pistons. He flashed a more rounded game in Detroit, but continued to be plagued by injuries.
So, how is Dub Nation feeling today about Mr. Griffin? Still annoyed about the years of dangerous flopping and being an ass? More forgiving over time as Blake annoyed everyone else annoying in Lob City and winds down a sad ending to his career?
Well 13% / Poorly 43.5% / Don't care either way 40.6% / Don't know who they are 2.9%
In a minor upset, Blake Griffin does NOT qualify for Warriors Villain For Life, and does NOT qualify even for Warriors Villain. A healthy plurality of Dub Nation still wishes him ill, but even more just plain don’t care.
Looks like we dodged the Blake bullet.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31024080/blake-griffin-agrees-deal-brooklyn-nets
ASG:
Adrian Wojnarowski
@wojespn
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