PLAYA VISTA, Calif. -- It's been two months since the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to Steve Ballmer was officially approved by the NBA, closing the book on the ugly Donald Sterling fiasco.
The whole affair of Sterling's racist comments, his ouster as owner and the transfer of the team to the ebullient Ballmer has been written about by every major and minor media outlet in the land. Until Thursday, it had not been chronicled firsthand by one of the Clippers' players.
In his debut piece for Derek Jeter's The Players' Tribune, Blake Griffin offered a behind-the-scenes look at the weirdness of the Sterling era and how warmly he and his teammates welcomed Ballmer.
"Steve is a good dude," Griffin wrote. "He's like a cool dad who gives you candy. Donald was like a weird uncle."
Before practice on Thursday, Griffin said, "It was nice to kind of get it out there and really be able to say exactly what I wanted to say."
Griffin is identified in the piece as "senior editor," so while the thoughts are definitely his, it isn't clear how much help he had with the writing -- or how often he'll have to turn in an assignment, so to speak.
"It's not like a weekly thing or a monthly thing," he said. "No timetable; no specific demands. Just kind of put out what you want to put out."
Sounds like good work if you can get it!
Griffin -- who like Jeter is a Jordan Brand athlete -- told a creepy story in the piece in which Sterling led him by the hand around his annual "white party" in Malibu, introducing him to beautiful women and trotting him around like a prize.
"You know that thing elderly women do where they grab the top of your hand with just their fingers and lead you around?" Griffin wrote. "That’s what he was doing."
Of particular note to the Clippers' post-Sterling world, Griffin mentioned that Ballmer signed off "on Day 1" on a piece of medical equipment that Sterling had refused to provide for the basketball staff: body-scanning equipment to help quickly diagnose injuries.
"There's things we needed medically that last year we got about 50 percent," coach Doc Rivers said. "And this year, we bought the other half, let's say. And there's things he says no to as well that don't make business sense. But the players love the fact that you have an owner who really wants us to do well and is willing to put his wallet behind it. I don't know that you could ask for anything more."
