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Blake Griffin wasn't surprised by Donald Sterling's racist rant

Blake Griffin wasn't surprised by Donald Sterling's racist rant

When Donald Sterling's racism scandal grabbed national attention during the first round of the NBA playoffs last spring, it put the coaches and players of the Los Angeles Clippers in an awkward position. With Sterling disgraced and not yet banned from the league, the team itself was forced to represent the interests of a despicable man while simultaneously attempting to carry out a lifelong dream of winning a title. It was particularly tough for head coach Doc Rivers and stars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, who were all expected to wrestle with their own uncertainty in public as often as media members required.

In a new interview with GQ, Griffin speaks about the difficulties of that moment and the more general issues of playing for Sterling. He is quite forthcoming, and here's a sample:

When the draft lottery came out and the Clippers said they were gonna draft me, I went to Google to find out more about the Clippers, because I didn't know a lot. And I was like, "Okay, team owned by Donald Sterling." So then I typed in "Donald Sterling" in Google, and the first thing that pops up is "Donald Sterling racist." And I was like, "Whoa!" So obviously I explored that, read a whole bunch of articles, read the deposition at one of his court cases. Which was awesome, if you ever have time to read some of the depositions. [laughs] [...]

After you get drafted, and you're reading this stuff—is there any recourse for a player in your situation?

No. Not at all. I mean, what was I gonna do? And for five years with the team, it was fine. Nothing came out. Nothing happened. I never really saw him that much. I saw him right when I first got drafted. I had to go to a couple of events that he does, which was awful. [...]

Would you guys commiserate about working for someone like that?

No, we really didn't. Guys would tell different stories about their interactions with him. And then when all this came out... We heard that it was gonna come out the day before it came out—our coach told us—and this is during the playoffs. We were up in San Francisco, in a team meeting. And because we didn't know exactly what was said, we were just kind of like, "Oh, okay, well, whatever." And then I remember waking up Saturday morning to, like, twenty texts. This is 7 a.m. And then, throughout the day, just bombarded with texts about it. I ended up turning my phone off, because we were trying to focus. [...]

How did you feel, listening [to Sterling's rant]?

It was unfortunate. I mean, for me, like I said, the first thing I ever Googled about the man, the first thing that popped up was "racist." So I was aware. I hate to say this, and it might sound ignorant, but I wasn't surprised that all this came up. Not necessarily the manner in which it was said, or the exact things, but like I said: This was my first impression of him. [...]

It's doubly complicated. because some portion of that sale price is you. It's value that you imparted to that team.

Yeah, but that's how it works. I'm more than blessed to be able to play a PE sport for money. [laughs] That's what it is, when you break it down. I get paid to go do something that I enjoy doing, and, I mean, yeah, [Sterling's] gonna make a lot of money, but I've been fortunate to make a good amount of money as well. It's not like I'm like, "Man, I should have been given a cut of that!"

Again, these quotes are just a sample of Griffin's thoughts — he also speaks about the Clippers' internal meetings during this period and the extent to which it distracted them during the playoffs. Through it all, though, what comes across is that he didn't really consider Sterling's behavior to be out of the norm, because that's just who Sterling is. It's a nice reminder that what was notable about this scandal is that anyone actually acted on it — not that Sterling professed certain views. These issues were known for quite some time.

Yet Griffin accepted his relationship with Sterling as a fact of playing in the NBA from the very beginning. This point isn't especially surprising, if only because the four-time All-Star doesn't seem like the most politically motivated person in the world, but it does say something about the reality of suiting up for a professional sports team. No matter how much Griffin and other stars make off the sport, owners will always eventually make much more from a sale of the team no matter how thoroughly they bungle things during a single scandal or in general (Sterling did both, of course). The fact that fans pay to see Griffin and other great players is immaterial to the issue at hand. It's really no wonder that he would not attempt to dig into this relationship too deeply, because it would probably make anyone question the sanity of the structure of the business.

Of course, Griffin is doing just fine for himself, and the rest of this interview proves why. Visit GQ.com if you want to learn about his plans to pursue a career in comedy and various other aspects of his Hollywood lifestyle. In the grand scheme of things, it's hard to feel too bad for the guy.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!