Blake Griffin on Rockets confrontation: 'We were doing the right thing'
WATTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A day after a rowdy game and post-matchup confrontation involving the Los Angeles Clippers and Houston Rockets, Blake Griffin said he's already spoken to league officials as the team waits to see if any discipline will be handed out.
Tuesday's game at Staples Center marked the return of Chris Paul to Los Angeles after he asked to be traded to Houston last year.
Things got chippy on the court, with multiple fouls and trash talking involving Blake Griffin, Austin Rivers, Chris Paul and Trevor Ariza, among others.
After the game, four Rockets players reportedly used a back tunnel to try to enter the Clippers locker room. Security and police officers were called and no direct confrontation actually occurred within the locker room.
Griffin was asked about the incident Wednesday as he appeared at a charity event to provide free eyeglasses to Los Angeles students.
He noted that Clippers players were not the ones who left the locker room to confront the other team.
"We were exactly where we were supposed to be," Griffin said. "All our guys were in the locker room talking. You can only control what you can control and we did and we were doing the right thing."
The NBA is investigating the incident to determine if discipline is warranted. Griffin said the league has already spoken to him.
"I wouldn't call it pretty crazy," Griffin said. "In this day and age everything kind of gets blown a little bit out of proportion."
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer agreed with Griffin's assessment of the post-game incident: "I'm glad we got the win last night and I'm glad all our guys were in our locker room last night."
Paul was asked about it after the game and dodged the question.
"I don't know," he said. "We took our loss ... a tough loss."
Griffin, Ballmer and other members of the Clippers organization appeared at Flournoy elementary school in Watts on Wednesday as part of an effort to give free eye exams and glasses to Los Angeles Unified School District students.
The team has partnered with Vision To Learn in an effort to provide free eye exams and glasses to every LAUSD student in need - an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the district's 600,000 students.
The issue is important to Griffin because his older brother Taylor struggled with poor vision as a child.
