The situation with DeAndre Jordan bailing on the Dallas Mavericks and re-signing with the Los Angeles Clippers is basically unprecedented in the modern free agency era. Perhaps that is why Blake Griffin was unsure of how to handle it at first.
In their lengthy behind-the-scenes look at how Jordan ended up staying in L.A., ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Tim MacMahon reported that Griffin initially advised Jordan to honor his verbal commitment to the Mavs.
Jordan had called Griffin on Monday to say he was having serious misgivings about his decision. He had built a life in Los Angeles. Why was he leaving? Had he just gotten caught up in the frenzy of the recruiting process? Did he really want to be the face of a franchise? Griffin told Jordan he had made a commitment and needed to live up to it. They’d still be friends, regardless of whether they were teammates. But Jordan seemed troubled. Griffin told him he needed to call Rivers if he really wanted to revisit his decision.
At that point, Griffin had already accepted that Jordan had become his former teammate. A handshake agreement during the NBA moratorium period has always been the equivalent of signing a contract, so Griffin probably thought Jordan was just dealing with the jitters of heading to a new city.
As we now know, that wasn’t the case. Jordan reached out to Rivers, who later got into a heated discussion with the 6-foot-11 center’s agent over ethics. Some reports have indicated that Jordan never wanted to sign with the Mavs and was steered there by his agents.
Jordan didn’t take Griffin’s advice about honoring his word, but he did call Rivers. The rest is history, and I’m sure Blake is pleased with how it unfolded.
