Blake Griffin’s Sacrifice Deserves Recognition Despite Clippers’ Looming Demise

LOS ANGELES — Before we allow Blake Griffin to move on from this forgettable season, he should be given a tremendous amount of credit.

That’s right. Griffin might have a thing or two he wishes he did differently in this ill-fated 2015-16 campaign, but he was there for his Los Angeles Clippers team in epic ways that need to be told.

Griffin knew, according to league sources, there was a strong possibility he would re-tear his left quadriceps tendon by playing in the playoffs.

He played anyway.

Griffin could’ve and maybe should’ve undergone the procedure to fix the tendon immediately after suffering the injury on Christmas, according to league sources, but it would’ve ended his Clippers season because of a four- to six-month recovery.

So he tried to strengthen the other areas of his leg, gut it out and heal somewhat to be there, even at a substandard level, for his team’s playoff run.

That’s how much he wanted to capitalize on the opportunity the Clippers had with DeAndre Jordan re-signed to play with both him and Chris Paul, both of whom can opt out of their contracts to become free agents after next season.

Griffin’s decision in December also meant he was knowingly surrendering his chance of playing in the 2016 Rio Olympics, because he was told he would need the significant bone-marrow-injection procedure eventually. If he did it in December and used the NBA season to recover, he could be back for a summer with USA Basketball.

That deep commitment to the Clippers offers an interesting context for Griffin’s heavily scrutinized punch of assistant equipment manager Matias Testi at a restaurant in late January. The punch that broke Griffin’s right hand and turned him into a pariah for indulging in an off-court moment so foolishly.

It’s only fair to understand that when Griffin did so, thereby hurting the team, he was putting off the quad procedure in sincere hopes of helping the team.

He had a team-high 17 points Monday night in Portland before he planted for a …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com