Blake Griffin says supposed Chris Paul beef ‘blown out of proportion’
PHOENIX — Ahead of his matchup against star point guard Chris Paul and Suns on Tuesday, Nets forward Blake Griffin says there’s no bad blood between him and his former Los Angeles Clippers co-star.
“We’ve talked. We’ve played before,” Griffin said after shootaround Tuesday morning. “I think a lot of that with our team was a little blown out of proportion in my opinion. When you don’t win, things sort of get compounded. People want to write stories for clicks, not for the truth.”
Griffin and Paul were teammates for six seasons and together helped drag the Clippers from beneath the purple and gold shadows. After winning 40 games in the 66-game lockout-shortened season in their first season as a duo in 2011, Griffin and Paul never won fewer than 51 games and became perennial playoff contenders.
The Clippers, however, never made it past the second round of the toughened Western Conference playoff picture in any of their seasons in Lob City. Reports eventually surfaced about friction between Paul and Griffin. They eventually parted ways: The Clippers traded Paul to the Houston Rockets. Then after giving Griffin a max contract extension, they traded him to the Detroit Pistons.
Years later, Paul conceded he and Griffin had “our issues here and there” on an April 2020 episode of the All the Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, but went on to say he “appreciated Blake a lot more” after he left the Clippers for the Houston Rockets in 2016.
“It’s one of those things where you never really know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone,” Paul said on the podcast.
Griffin and Paul’s careers are set to intertwine once again. Not only will they face each other as opponents on Tuesday night, but they are also competing for the same NBA championship that eluded both stars during their shared time in Lob City.
Paul’s Suns own the NBA’s best record, while Griffin’s Nets, despite their standing as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, are prospective championship favorites if Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden can stay healthy for their playoff stretch.
Tuesday night might not be the last time these two stars see each other this season, even if it’s their last regular season meeting. Griffin said it’s all love between the two stars now.
“I would consider both of us competitors, so there’s no like — when you’re on the floor, you’re trying to win,” he said. “Obviously, we spent a lot of time together. He’s an unbelievable player who’s still playing at a very high level. So we’ve got our work cut out for us for sure.”
