Steve Ballmer’s one-year suspension in the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard cap-circumvention mess has nothing to do with Blake Griffin on paper. But after the way LA handled Griffin’s exit, it’s hard not to see a strange bit of symmetry in all of this.
Ballmer initially said he would fight the punishment before later agreeing to comply. The league’s action came because of the Leonard scandal, not because of anything tied to Griffin, who retired three years ago and last played for the Clippers in January 2018, more than a year before Leonard arrived in Los Angeles.
Still, the Griffin episode lingers because of how badly the Clippers botched it.
In 2017 free agency, the team went all-in to keep Griffin. They staged a mock jersey retirement, literally raising a custom jersey to the rafters, called him a “Clipper for life,” and convinced him to stay on a five-year, $173 million max deal. Then, just a half-year later, they sent him to Detroit.
The return package was Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Boban Marjanovich, a 2018 protected first-round pick, and a 2019 second-round pick. Ballmer framed the move as part of the franchise’s shift into the “modern NBA,” saying it improved the Clippers’ title chances and fit the direction he believed they were headed.
But the optics of it were ugly from the start. Ballmer, who has never been shy about showing off his wealth, put on a lavish show to sell Griffin on staying, then moved him out months later. In a league where plans change fast, the problem was making a promise that never had a chance to hold.
That made Griffin’s first return to Los Angeles after the trade even more awkward. Ballmer stood on the floor waiting to greet him, arm extended for a handshake. Griffin didn’t stop and headed straight for the tunnel.
After the game, Griffin said he was simply sticking to his pregame routine, one he wouldn’t change for “anybody.” The routine worked just fine: he poured in 44 points in Detroit’s 109-104 win over the Clippers.
A couple of months later, Griffin addressed the moment on the “Pardon My Take” podcast and made it clear he had seen Ballmer waiting there. He said:
“You have my number. You have my agent's number.
You have my brother's number. If you wanted to say, 'Hey, let's meet in the hallway; let's meet outside the locker room.'
Absolutely, cool. Before the game, after that happened, one of his people called my agent and said, 'Hey, can Blake go up to him before jump ball?'
Come to me as a man.”
The Clippers’ treatment of Griffin still stands as one of the more jarring examples of the organization talking big and then backing into a bad look. And it has not exactly gotten better with age.
Last December, the team waived Chris Paul during a road trip in Atlanta, months after he returned to LA on a one-year deal and after he had already confirmed the season would be his last in the NBA. Griffin, now part of Amazon Prime’s NBA crew, reacted to that situation by saying:
“You can build a new arena. You can be at games.
You can cheer on the team. You can have all this high energy.
But at the end of the day, an organization is built on a foundation of respect and how you treat people. I don’t think that, in this situation, Chris was treated right."
That idea lands even harder when you look back at how Griffin was handled, from the free-agency sales pitch to the trade and everything after.
Ballmer’s suspension is not revenge for Griffin. It is punishment for the Leonard saga.
But it also fits the larger picture of a man who acted like his money and power would shield him from the consequences of his own choices. This time, they did not.
The $30 million fine was never going to sting much for the former Microsoft CEO. A year away from the organization might be a different kind of pain. And for the Clippers, maybe it is a chance to clean up the mess.
If there is any real repair work to be done, it starts with Griffin. The Clippers can begin by finally raising his jersey to the rafters for real. He may not have been a “Clipper for life” in the literal sense, but he earned the honor all the same.
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