The off-court incident involving Blake Griffin and a member of the equipment staff already has big ramifications for the Los Angeles Clippers, with a broken right hand sidelining Griffin for another 4-6 weeks beyond the month he has already missed with a separate injury.
The league is launching an investigation of the incident, with discipline certainly possible for Griffin once he returns to the court. Center DeAndre Jordan and assistant trainer Joe Resendez have been interviewed by the league regarding the incident, since the two were at the dinner in Toronto surrounding when Griffin punched Matias Testi.
Jordan is known to be close to Griffin off the court, and he also conveyed a close relationship with Testi in quotes offered by the Los Angeles Times.
“Those guys are really close friends of mine, like brothers to me,” Jordan said of Griffin and Testi, according to the newspaper.
“It’s a tough situation,” Jordan said without elaborating on the incident. “Two guys that I’m super close with and it’s sticky, man. It’s tough.”
Griffin and Testi are also friends, with social media evidence that backs that up, and it’s unclear how things escalated in such a way that Griffin felt the need to allegedly throw two punches to the face. But without those further details, the perception that Jordan could have stepped in and stopped things from getting that far is a bad look.
What Jordan told NBA investigators about what went on with Griffin and Testi last weekend will never become public information, barring a lawsuit on Testi’s end I suppose. But I do think Jordan’s recollection will go a long way toward determining the length of the suspension Griffin ultimately receives, assuming he does get some sort of discipline from the league.
