Gary A. Vasquez / USA TODAY Sports
Blake Griffin Reveals Details of Jersey Retirement Ceremony Clippers Held For Him
Just months before dealing him to the Detroit Pistons, the LA Clippers did all they could to convince franchise player Blake Griffin to re-sign with the team. These efforts included a fake jersey retirement ceremony for Blake, which illustrated his jersey being lifted into the Staples Center rafters after being a Clipper for life. Until recently, details of this ceremony were widely unavailable; however, in a recent interview with Graham Bensinger, Blake revealed some details.
According to Blake, the ceremony began with a walk through memory lane of his life. Blake said, "It was crazy, we walked in and a lot of my teammates were there. Obviously good to see them, but I also felt bad, I was like sorry guys you didn't have to come to this." On the details of the presentation, Blake said, "They had like different phases of my life, like my childhood with big giant blown up pictures. They had certain things from my childhood like this green bike, a basketball, a little tike goal, then you turn a corner and it's high school with my high school state championship trophies, and medals, and pictures again."
Blake said the visual trip down memory lane began from his childhood and walked him all the way through college and his early days in the NBA. The presentation ultimately led Blake to a couch at mid-court of the Staples Center floor where he sat with his family and watched his jersey get lifted into the rafters. According to Blake, they also had Andra Day there to perform her song "Rise Up" with a choir during the ceremony.
Blake said the ceremony was one of the craziest things he had ever seen, but it wasn't what convinced him to re-sign. When asked how much of an impact the ceremony had, Blake said it was actually the business discussion that followed the ceremony that convinced him to re-sign with the Clippers.
Just months after giving him this ceremony, the Clippers dealt Blake to Detroit where he ultimately added one more All-NBA appearance to his hall-of-fame career before agreeing to a buyout and joining the Brooklyn Nets.
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