Blake Griffin says the infamous Steve Ballmer handshake moment was never the cold-blooded statement people made it out to be. From his side, it was just a player moving through his usual pregame routine - until the whole thing got reframed as a public relations problem.
On Pablo Torre Finds Out, Griffin looked back at his January 2019 return to Staples Center with the Detroit Pistons and described how the viral clip came together. Ballmer came toward him with a hand extended after warm-ups, but Griffin ran past him, and the footage quickly turned into a symbol of how he supposedly felt about the trade.
“I finished with my free throws. I swear on everything, I don’t see him at first.”
“I shake my coach’s hand, which I always did, and then I would kind of take some steps. I would kind of make sure it’s clear that I’m not gonna truck anybody, like, right in the… And I took off, and I see him, and I’m like, a split second, like, I’m not stopping. I’ve never stopped for anyone.”
“Why would I stop now? And I didn’t think that much of it, and I get to the locker room, and I’m continuing my routine, right? And I get a text from my agent, and he’s like, ‘Gillian Zucker, like, text, like, hey, can Blake go up and shake Steve’s hand before the tip?'”
“And I’m like, I’m like, ‘Oh, so, okay. Oh, oh, this is all for the appearance.’
And, like, I totally get it. There was a little bit of backlash, but from how the trade went down.
My whole thing, I think I said it after the game, it was like, ‘Yeah, he has my number.'”
Griffin’s frustration makes more sense when you put it next to the way his Clippers exit unfolded. During his 2017 free agency, the team put on a mock jersey retirement presentation as part of its effort to keep him.
He signed a five-year, $173 million deal and believed he was committing to the franchise long term. About six months later, the Clippers traded him to Detroit.
He said he found out through Twitter, a detail that only sharpened the sting after the organization had sold him on the idea that he could spend his entire career in Los Angeles. That history is why the pregame handshake request rubbed him the wrong way.
To Griffin, it felt unnecessary. He also pushed back on the reporters who criticized him, saying they had known about his warm-up routine for years.
The night itself still ended with a performance that matched the drama around it. Griffin scored 44 points in Detroit’s 109-104 win, giving his return to Staples Center a bigger memory than the handshake clip that had already gone viral. His account draws a clear line: he says he did not initially spot Ballmer, and once the request reached his agent, he took it as an attempt to stage the moment rather than something he was obligated to stop for.
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