Things between Blake Griffin and Chris Paul were absolutely as awkward and combustible as you think they were.
Paul is now a member of the Houston Rockets, so this doesn’t matter anymore. But the two spent more than a half-decade together on the Los Angeles Clippers, ostensibly jostling for alpha status. And while the tense nature of their relationship has been downplayed in the past, Austin Rivers, who began playing with the duo in 2014-15, confirmed the balance between them was hardly peachy keen while speaking with Sports Illustrated‘s Lee Jenkins:
Before training camp Griffin rented a house in San Diego on Airbnb and invited the team to join him. Rookies doubled up in rooms. Griffin grabbed a twin bed, ceding the master to homesick first-year Serbian guard Miloš Teodosi?. By day the Clippers practiced at the University of San Diego, and by night they hung out on a deck, a peekaboo view of the Pacific Ocean in the distance. “It felt like we were taking all our bulls—, putting it in a trash can and dumping it in the water,” recalls guard Austin Rivers. “The dynamic with Blake and Chris was weird. I don’t know why. It was just strange. No one knew who the leader was, and if you had something to say, it would turn into an argument. I think people were sometimes scared to say something to Blake, because you didn’t know how he’d react. [Now] he’s a whole different person, more approachable, and I think it’s because we’ve embraced him. We know who our leader is. We’re all-in with Blake Griffin.”
The shade Rivers is throwing in Paul’s direction aside, this take hardly registers as revelation.
Never mind the multiple reports that alleged animosity and tension and weirdness existed between Griffin and Paul. They are disparate personalities. Paul’s leadership style has long been considered grating, and Griffin is more of an easy-going, fun-loving, lighthearted chief.
The latter personality aligns more with the culture of today’s NBA. Guys like Paul, who is cut from the same cloth as Kobe Bryant in this respect, are the old heads. His play style isn’t outdated, but his leadership approach might be, and he has yet to find that happy medium between ferocious and relatable that LeBron James long ago mastered—well, almost mastered.
Anyway, it seems like everyone in this situation is better off now. The Clippers get a more California leader in Griffin, while the Rockets, once Paul is healthy, have the domineering presence to which James Harden seems to appreciate .
