Doc rejects Blake Griffin rumors

In an appearance on The Vertical Podcast with Adrian Wojnarowski, Doc Rivers was dismissive of trade rumors linking Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin to the Boston Celtics. In no uncertain terms, Doc brushed off the trade talk as the product of bloggers and gossipers who “have nothing to do with the sport.” He also asserted his and the Clippers’ desire for Griffin to remain in LA in the long term.

As Rivers told Wojnarowski,

“We are hoping that Blake ends his career playing for the Clippers. Period...No team is calling right now because teams know we don’t have any interest. It just tells you the different times. Things have changed. Everyone believes that they’re the media now. There are so many good, credible guys, and then there’s some of the guys who are bloggers who have nothing to do with the sport...”

Rivers made the case that all the Blake-to-Boston talk had been blown way out of proportion, saying that his “young son” (presumably Spencer, who plays ball at UC Irvine) had done some sleuthing and had traced the origin of the trade rumors to Boston’s hyperbolic talk-radio scene.

Regarding the rumors, Rivers explained,

“...my son traced it to I think it was a Boston talk radio show, and the guy didn’t say that we [Rivers and Celtics GM Danny Ainge] had been talking, he said Blake would be one of the guys that the Celtics should go after. That started the next step, to the next step, to the next thing you know, it blew up.”

So, are we to take Doc at his word, trust the detective skills of young Spencer, and conclude that any Blake-to-Boston rumors are poppycock? Or is Doc obfuscating the truth—that there is some credence to the rumors but that Doc is withholding any real information in these early days of negotiations? Either way, these quotes indicate that we shouldn’t hold our breath for a Blake Griffin trade in the short term.

This article has been updated for grammar and to include the link to Spencer Rivers’s bio at the UC Irvine athletics website.