Blake Griffin shares bizarre Donald Sterling locker room encounter

More than a decade after he was banned from the NBA, the bizarre Donald Sterling stories are still flowing.

Former Clippers star Blake Griffin detailed an awkward locker room interaction he had with the franchise’s former owner during an appearance on “The Adam Friedland Show” this week. 

“He would come in with his crew, it’d be like 10-12 people with him in the locker room. And we’d all have towels on,” Griffin recalled. “One time, I’m in a towel, [Sterling] comes over, grabs my arm, and he’s got all his people in there and he goes, ‘Let’s hear it for our number one star, hip hip!’ And he raised my arm, and all these people go ‘hooray!’

“And I’m sitting there holding the towel going ‘hip hip, hooray!’ He did it three times.”

The No. 1 overall pick in 2009 also told the story of a time Sterling told some in attendance at one of his white parties to touch Griffin’s ab and arm muscles. 

“I was like 19 years old,” Griffin said. 

It’s far from the first time Griffin, who spent eight-plus seasons with the Clippers, has ripped the disgraced Sterling. 

In a 2014 piece for The Players’ Tribune, Griffin described Sterling as his “weird uncle,” and stated that he had long known he was “really, really a racist” and “off his rocker.”

The ex-Clippers owner was banned from the league by commissioner Adam Silver in 2014 after recordings by his then-girlfriend V. Stiviano of a racist rant by Sterling — where he told Stiviano not to bring “black people” to his games — emerged. 

Sterling also told Stiviano, “You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that [Instagram] and not to bring them to my games.”

Griffin retired from the NBA in 2023 after 13 seasons in the league, making six NBA All-Star teams and five All-NBA teams. 

Next season, Griffin will serve as an analyst alongside Dirk Nowitzki and host Taylor Rooks on Amazon’s new NBA studio show.