Griffin hurt his hand in an altercation with a member of the Los Angeles Clippers’ staff on the team’s current road trip, according to The Associated Press. Griffin hit Testi, who left the restaurant and went outside.
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Things were tough for the Clippers, carrying the emotional baggage from losing Blake Griffin to a self-inflicted injury.
Blake allegedly struck the man in the face twice, and sources told ESPN that Blake possibly suffered a fracture in his hand.
Griffin and a team equipment staffer got in an argument at a Toronto restaurant.
Both Griffin and the staffer were sent back home to LA.
The initial timeframe on Griffin’s injury was four to six weeks, but Rivers said before Tuesday’s game that may be unrealistic, in his opinion, when it comes to a broken hand.
“This conduct has no place in our organization and this incident does not represent who we are as a team”, part of the statement read. It proceeded outside where Griffin hit the equipment staffer multiple times.
It is not the first time Griffin has found himself in hot water over a physical altercation. The NBA’s security unit is investigating the incident. And while there’s no real justifying what Griffin did, there might have been some sort of incident that at least makes it understandable. Those suspicions were confirmed when Dan Woike of the Orange County Register reported the injury involved an incident with a team staff member.
Griffin had not played since Christmas Day as he was nursing an injured quadriceps tendon.
The 26-year-old forward was averaging a team-leading 23.2 points per game for the Clippers, who are in fourth place in the Western Conference.
L.A. flies to Atlanta to face the Hawks on Wednesday before returning home to face crosstown rivals the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday at Staples Center. A man accused him of taking his cellphone and grabbing him after the man photographed Clippers players inside the club.
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Griffin never appeared in court and the charge against him was dropped in March after prosecutors said they didn’t have enough evidence to prove the allegations were true.
