Blake Griffin Suspended

The Los Angeles Clippers, who hardly seem to miss Blake Griffin, will miss him for a little while longer.

The Clippers suspended their standout forward for four games without pay and will dock him another game’s wages for breaking his hand while punching out another team employee on Jan. 23 in Toronto.

The fine is heavy, but heavy is relative. Five games’ pay will cost Griffin nearly $860,000. His salary this season is a shade north of $18.9 million. Apparently that is nearly a living wage for Los Angeles.

Weirder, though, is this. Griffin went out on Dec. 26 with a partially-torn quadriceps tendon and hasn’t played since. The Clippers are 18-4 without him, 35-17 overall and in second place in the NBA Western Conference’s Pacific Division, which is as much as anyone could hope for the way the Golden State Warriors are doing business. Their 47-4 record marks the best start in NBA history through 51 games. Our friend Griffin? He was averaging 23.2 points per game, along with 8.7 rebounds and 5 assists, sixth-man territory for the Warriors.

The team said Griffin’s suspension will begin when he is ready to return; the hand injury was expected to keep him out for four to six weeks. The Clippers’ game on Wednesday night on the road vs. the Boston Celtics is their last before this weekend’s All-Star festivities, of which Griffin will not be a part for the first time in his six seasons.

The Clippers said they will donate Griffin’s docked pay to charities serving disadvantaged youth in Los Angeles. The team also aid Griffin asked to donate his time to the organizations. That’s a grand gesture by both parties.

All will end well, it seems. Except for the part about playing in the same division as the Warriors.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman