LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Clippers returned home from a five-game road trip on Friday night when they hosted their Staples Center co-tenants, the Lakers. Needless to say, the team and its players fielded multiple questions regarding the Blake Griffin investigation.
Griffin famously punched Clippers equipment manager, Matias Testi multiple times both inside and outside the Toronto restaurant Sotto Sotto on January 23rd. Griffin broke his hand in the altercation and will be out an estimated 4-6 weeks, prompting his Clippers teammates to have to play without their five-time All-Star forward for the next two months of the season.
"He feels awful about it, and he's let everyone know that," Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said before the game against the Lakers on Friday. "That's all you can do. You have to forgive people at some point. I believe that. We built Richard Nixon a library. I mean, my goodness. You forgive people. You really do. You kind of move on, and you build back."
But Rivers' players didn't share the same opinion, with one player telling us that Griffin "let the team down" with his actions. Others, like former Sixth Man of the Year, Jamal Crawford, believe that the veteran-laced team will be able to handle adversity.
"I think it would be more difficult if we were a younger team," Crawford said about losing Griffin. "Since we have veterans and high IQ guys, we are able to adjust on the fly. At the end of the day, we play for each other."
Meanwhile, Rivers was quick to point out that this team has been through a number of "off the court" issues over the past few years and has shown a continued resiliency to preserve even through the darkest of times.
"I'm definitely not going to rank everything that has happened here," joked Rivers about the revolving door of incidents, most notoriously, the ongoing saga of former Clippers owner Donald Sterling. "But this group does not get into it. They leave everything up to me. 'We're out. We're playing.' They told me, and they have."
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Neither Griffin nor Testi were in attendance for the game against the Lakers, and the NBA is currently investigating the incident. On Thursday, league officials interviewed all parties involved including Clippers center DeAndre Jordan who was in attendance the night of the incident.
The league is close to finishing their investigation and will be solely responsible for handing down any punishment against Griffin or the Clippers organization for their actions.
pic.twitter.com/DCKYHjSgZs — Blake Griffin (@blakegriffin32) January 27, 2016
