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Blake Griffin knew about Donald Sterling's history when he was drafted

(Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY Sports)

(Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY Sports)

Blake Griffin was well aware of Donald Sterling’s history long before his racist rants eventually forced him to sell the team. In an interview with GQ (where Griffin is featured on the cover this month), the Clippers star said he Googled the team when he realized the franchise was going to draft him.

And I was like, “Okay, team owned by Donald Sterling.” So then I typed in “Donald Sterling” in Google, and the first thing that pops up is “Donald Sterling racist.” And I was like, “Whoa!” So obviously I explored that, read a whole bunch of articles, read the deposition at one of his court cases. Which was awesome, if you ever have time to read some of the depositions. [laughs]

Griffin told the magazine he had never had any real problems with Sterling, other than experiencing some of his erratic behavior in the locker room (where he used to bring in guests) and at parties. When the news came out about the tapes, Griffin said he listened to the recording.

Again from GQ:

It was unfortunate. I mean, for me, like I said, the first thing I ever Googled about the man, the first thing that popped up was “racist.” So I was aware. I hate to say this, and it might sound ignorant, but I wasn’t surprised that all this came up. Not necessarily the manner in which it was said, or the exact things, but like I said: This was my first impression of him.

In the interview, which you can (and should) read the rest of here, Griffin also talks about some lighter things in the interview including meeting Will Ferrell, his relationship with Charles Barkley and more.

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