Blake Griffin talks about his current relationship with the Clippers, the NBA’s new Prime deal

CULVER CITY, Calif. — Amazon is set to run their coverage NBA on Prime on Friday as part of the NBA Week opening schedule. Ex Los Angeles Clippers a great man Blake Griffin is set to be one of the high profile analysts for the NBA on Prime’s coverage this season, alongside greats like Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Udonis Haslem, Dwyane Wade and Candice Parker.

A six-time NBA All-Star and five-time All-NBA team member, Griffin officially retired after the 2022-23 season. Boston Celtics. But the way his career unfolded after being traded from the LA Clippers left fans around the league wanting more from the big man who started out as an athletic dunker and developed into an all-around star on the basketball court.

In the two years away from basketball, Griffin spent time with his family while making occasional appearances on sports shows. He decided this was the right time, however, to get back into the media space, joining Amazon’s powerful team armed with a state-of-the-art studio in Culver City.

“I think it’s just an opportunity to be a part of something new,” Blake Griffin told ClutchPoints of his reason for joining the NBA’s Prime Team. “Amazon also stepping into the NBA was really interesting to me, in a way watching Thursday Night Football and how they handled that whole process was very impressive. Now you see what they’ve done with Thursday Night and they’ve made a big deal out of it, and this is no different. They took the same approach.”

Griffin will join Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and Udonis Haslem at Amazon Studios with host Taylor Rooks. Together, the team will host the pre-Game 1 show, transition into a ‘Crossover’ between the two sites and wrap up their coverage with ‘NBA Nightcap,’ which will feature post-game reactions and exclusive interviews.

“I just got the opportunity to be on a panel with UD, Dirk, Steve, Taylor Rooks is amazing,” added Griffin. “So I’m excited. When we were doing rehearsals and listening to these guys talk, I enjoy and I’m excited to hear these guys talk, so I know the average fan will. It was a no-brainer for me, just staying close to the game and talking about the game that I love.”

.@ThisIsUD with some professional analysis of Fr #TNFonPrime halftime show in the new studio 🔥 pic.twitter.com/a5icjSjrii

— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) October 24, 2025

Anyone who has followed the league and talked to its players knows that while the pay is extremely good and the perks are plentiful, there are a number of important family events and milestones that are also missed along the way.

Part of Griffin’s attraction to joining the NBA was the studio’s location in Los Angeles and his proximity to his two children.

“It was a big decision to retire, honestly, I was able to be here and spend more time with them,” Blake Griffin explained. “So the fact that our studio is in LA and you come to work from here – with the exception of the Emirates Cup, we’ll be in Vegas – it doesn’t really break that beat too much. I can still get to all their games and do things that I feel like I’ve missed for so long is huge. It’s been great. They’ll just be patient. I mean, they’ll be patient. shout (on TV) and I’ll do a few shows, but they’ve already hounded me about it, so I know they’ll be watching, so we’ll put on a show for them.”

Despite the 2018 trade that sent shockwaves around the league, Blake Griffin remains a beloved figure in the Los Angeles Clippers organization. There was no love lost after the trade, and Griffin felt betrayed that the team traded him just six months after signing them to a five-year, $171 million contract.

But time heals all wounds. Griffin says he’s friendly with people inside the organization and will try to get to his first game in the Intuit Dome.

“I’m still friends with a lot of people who work in the organization,” Griffin told ClutchPoints. “I didn’t get a chance to go to the new arena last year, but I’ve talked to Lawrence Franco every now and then and I’ve been meaning to try to get there and tour the arena. I mean, it’s definitely not a no. I’ve just been busy chasing kids around and I haven’t had a chance to get down there. But those fans have a special place in my heart, that’s for sure.”

This summer, the Clippers overhauled their roster significantly, bolstering the team around Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and Ivica Zubac. They added Brook Lopez and John Collins to the frontcourt while signing Bradley Beal to the backcourt. Their latest offseason signing was Blake Griffin’s former Clippers teammate, Chris Paul.

Given Prime’s upcoming NBA debut and his love for basketball, Griffin had done his fair share of diving into teams around the league by Friday night. And while age is a very real concern for his former team, he believes the Clippers can be a unique team in the regular season and playoffs.

“I mean, they put together a really talented roster,” Griffin said when asked by ClutchPoints about the Clippers’ moves and depth. “I think in the regular season it could work for them as long as they stay healthy. The one thing that I think you’re starting to see right now in the NBA is that all the teams with all this youth not only do well in the regular season, but they do really well in the playoffs. The NBA game looks different to me now. It’s the opposite of the days when two or three players mesh together around them.”

That’s what Blake Griffin’s tenure with the Clippers looked like: three really good players in Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan, surrounded by role players that the franchise was mixing in its attempts to chase an NBA championship.

The Clippers now have high-level defenders in Kawhi Leonard, Ivica Zubac, Derrick Jones Jr., and Kris Dunn, while the main defensive brains in Jeff Van Gundy. Additionally, they are legitimately double-teamed at every position, with Chris Paul as James Harden’s backup, Bogdan Bogdanovic as Bradley Beal’s backup, John Collins as Kawhi Leonard’s backup, and Brook Lopez as Ivica Zubac’s backup. And that’s not even mentioning Nicolas Batum, who continues to be a very effective player in his 18th season.

“If you even go back to the late or early 2000s, all the winning teams, those players are incredibly good. They play really good defense. There’s no real weaknesses on their roster. So when you look at Oklahoma City, they played eight or nine guys in the playoffs, and they’re all C-League players, and I think they’re on defense. One of them, yeah, they’re super talented, big question, like their ability to guard and guard a lot of different types of offense, a lot of different types of players, being able to switch and play in today’s league is just my biggest question, but they’ve done a good job of acquiring talent.”

LA’s season got off to a rocky start with a 21-point loss to the Utah Jazz on opening night, but the team will have a chance to bounce back in their home opener on Friday night. Blake Griffin will be in Amazon’s new studio, where the team will follow the Boston Celtics-New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves-Los Angeles Lakers matches.

Blake Griffin played in the NBA for 13 years, averaging 19 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists while shooting 49.3 percent from the field. During his eight seasons with the Clippers, Griffin averaged 21.6 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.0 steals per game while being named Rookie of the Year, five NBA All-Star selections, five All-NBA selections and third-place MVP in the 2013-1 season.