Los Angeles Clippers vow to stand behind Blake Griffin - NBA Update
There is general understanding in the world of NBA that whenever Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin is pinned down his team doesn’t come to his aide. This particular issue has aggravated in the latter
half of this shortened season.
Griffin has an aggressive approach and he doesn’t shy away from delivering a steaming double handed dunk in the presence of even the burliest of opponents. His aggression is one of the major reasons behind the
Clippers march into the playoffs for the first time in five years.
Griffin style of play and the aggressive stares that follow his posterizing acts are bound to rub most of the big men in the wrong way and what we have seen in the second half of the season is only a reflection
of that fact. However, what is astonishing is that Griffin’s teammates have never really got his back and more often than not the opposition players are allowed to get away with hard fouls on Griffin.
Sir Charles Barkley recently lashed out at the Clips for their indifferent attitude towards the man who is supposed to carry the franchise on his shoulders in the years to come. He was not the only one though
and the Clippers finally seem to have responded to the recent wave of criticism;
DeAndre Jordan, a very close friend of Griffin, however brushed aside the notion.
"If Blake gets fouled, I can't go punch someone in the nose," He said. "We can't do that but throughout the course of a game, other fouls happen to other players on the opposite team and if they happen to be
hard fouls, they happen to be hard fouls. We're going to protect our teammates; it doesn't matter who it is."
Blake is without any doubt the wings beneath Clippers. He has been averaging 20.4 points, 10.9 boards and 3.1 assists in this season and along with Chris Paul, is the prime target of opposing teams.
Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro has taken a different approach towards the situation and laid his trust on the system in place to curb such acts.
"The game is physical and Blake is a physical player," Del Negro said.”Of course we want to protect everybody and send a message and all this stuff but it's really about playing the right way, playing hard and
playing physical. As these games go on, it's only going to get more physical."
He however urged the league to take stricter actions against fouls such as the one Robin Lopez of the Phoenix Suns committed against Griffin.
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