Blake Griffin – A Career Overview

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Blake Griffin playing for the LA Clippers

Blake Griffin Playing For  The Los Angeles Clippers (By Verse Photography, Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, image link: flicker, cropped derivative)

Blake Griffin is a 29-year-old professional basketball player who currently plays for the Detroit Pistons in the National Basketball Association. At 6’10” and 251 lbs, Griffin is a dominant player who uses his size and strength to score and rebound over his eight seasons in the league.

High School Basketball

Griffin hails from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where he played high school basketball for his father, Tommy Griffin, at Oklahoma Christian School. He then went on to the University of Oklahoma where he played for two years before declaring for the NBA Draft. During his sophomore season with the Sooners, Griffin averaged 22.7 points, 2.3 assists and 14.4 rebounds per game during the regular season and won just about every award as the best player in the nation including the Naismith College Player of the Year.

No. 1 overall pick by the Los Angeles Clippers

In the 2009 NBA Draft, Griffin was selected as the No. 1 overall pick by the Los Angeles Clippers. Unfortunately, he was injured in a summer league game before his rookie season and ended up missing the entire year. However, in the following season, Griffin burst onto the NBA scene by taking the Rookie of the Year award, earned an All-Star appearance and was the first rookie to average 20 points and ten rebounds since Elton Brand in the 1999-2000 season.

Griffin went on the play 6 and a half more seasons for the Clippers before being surprisingly dealt with the Pistons on January 29th, 2018. During that time, he was named a 5-time NBA All-Star and a 4-time All-NBA selection. He has a career NBA scoring average of 21.8 points per game and averages 9.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.

Blake Griffin playing for the Clippers

Blake Griffin Playing For  The Los Angeles Clippers (By Keith Allison, Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, image link: flicker, cropped derivative)

During his time in the NBA, Griffin has been plagued by a series of injuries that have caused him to miss much time on the court. He was limited to just 35 games during the 2015-16 season due to a quadriceps injury and a hand injury and played only 61 games the following season.

Back in June 2017, it appeared that the Clippers made a significant commitment to keeping Blake in Los Angeles when they signed him to a 5- year 173 million dollar deal. He was an unrestricted free agent at the time, but the Clippers decided to retain the All-Star forward. That’s why it was surprising when Griffin was traded to the Pistons in January of 2018. In exchange, the Clippers received forward Tobias Harris, guard Avery Bradley, center Boban Marjanovic as well as a 1st round draft pick.

Play For The Detroit Pistons

Griffin now joins center Andre Drummond and guard Reggie Jackson as the primary players for Detroit. He played in 25 games for the Pistons during the 2018 season and performed well averaging just under 20 points a game with 6.6 rebounds and 6.2 assists a game. Barring injury, Griffin is expected to a be a force with the Pistons and in the Eastern Conference in the coming years.

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