Blake Griffin Retires from NBA After 13 Seasons with Clippers, Pistons, Celtics, Nets
Mike Chiari@@mikechiari
Featured Columnist IVApril 16, 2024
Veteran forward Blake Griffin announced his retirement from the NBA on Tuesday after 13 seasons.
Griffin made his decision official in a post on Instagram, adding that he is "thankful" for a long and successful career.
The 2022-23 campaign was Griffin's final NBA season and only season with the Boston Celtics, and he did not have a significant role on a deep and talented roster. Griffin appeared in 41 games and made 16 starts, averaging 4.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 13.9 minutes per contest, all of which were career lows.
The 35-year-old Griffin entered the league as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft out of Oklahoma, and he quickly established himself as one of the NBA's top players, winning the 2010-11 NBA Rookie of the Year Award after missing his would-be debut campaign with a knee injury.
In each of his first five NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers, Griffin was named an All-Star, averaging 21.5 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game during that stretch.
Griffin would spend parts of three more seasons with the Clips before getting traded to the Detroit Pistons, with whom he initially enjoyed some success.
In 2018-19, Griffin earned his sixth and final All-Star selection as a member of the Pistons and turned in one of the best statistical seasons of his career, averaging 24.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 2.5 three-pointers made per game.
Injuries took a toll on Griffin from that point forward, though, limiting him to 18 games in 2019-20 before the Pistons parted ways with him during the 2020-21 season.
Griffin spent parts of two seasons with the Brooklyn Nets, primarily in a backup role, before signing a one-year deal with the C's prior to the 2022-23 season.
After playing a limited role last season, Griffin went unsigned during the offseason and did not catch on with another team during the 2023-24 campaign.
Although the second half of Griffin's career paled in comparison to the first primarily because of injuries, he still enjoyed a great deal of success overall, averaging 19.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 765 regular-season games.