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Blakey poo we see you shining.

Blake Griffin Covers GQ Magazine’s October Issue

GQ just put Blake Griffin on the cover of their first ever age issue… and we’ve got some choice quotes for you below via GQ.com:

On Playing For “Racist” Donald Sterling:

Were you aware of Donald Sterling’s reputation then?

When the draft lottery came out and the Clippers said they were gonna draft me, I went to Google to find out more about the Clippers, because I didn’t know a lot. 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]

I’ve only seen the highlights.

Did you see the one where he’s talking about being in the back of the limo? You gotta just type in “Donald Sterling deposition.” [Later I do, and this is what comes up, from a 2003 suit, regarding a sexual companion: “Well, I fool around sometimes. I do. When a girl seduces me and tells me how much she wants to suck on me and take my shoes off and licks my feet and touches me. When I’m in a limousine, she takes off all her clothes. The limo driver said, ‘What is going on?’ And she started sucking me on the way to Mr. Koon’s house. And I thank her. I thank her for making me feel good.”] I’ll let you read it, because I don’t want to do it—I don’t want to do it injustice. And then, at the very end…just read it. [The response: “Sir, the question was, is this your handwriting?”] So I was aware, but not until right before I got drafted.

After you get drafted, and you’re reading this stuff—is there any recourse for a player in your situation?

No. Not at all. I mean, what was I gonna do? And for five years with the team, it was fine. Nothing came out. Nothing happened. I never really saw him that much. I saw him right when I first got drafted. I had to go to a couple of events that he does, which was awful.

Is it true that he would bring women in to the locker room to watch players shower?

He would bring them in the locker room. Guys would be in there. The showers are kind of elsewhere. I don’t think they would really go back there. But he would bring people in the locker room while we were just in towels. One year he came in and led a “hip hip hooray” chant and held my arm up in the air. Then he went to another teammate and did the same thing. Guys just started scattering as fast as possible. [laughs]

Would you guys commiserate about working for someone like that?

No, we really didn’t. Guys would tell different stories about their interactions with him. And then when all this came out… We heard that it was gonna come out the day before it came out—our coach told us—and this is during the playoffs. We were up in San Francisco, in a team meeting. And because we didn’t know exactly what was said, we were just kind of like, “Oh, okay, well, whatever.” And then I remember waking up Saturday morning to, like, twenty texts. This is 7 a.m. And then, throughout the day, just bombarded with texts about it. I ended up turning my phone off, because we were trying to focus.

Did you listen to the tape?

Oh yeah. [laughs] I listened to it like the first thing in the morning when I woke up, searched for it and listened to it from beginning to end, and then listened to the second one.

How did you feel, listening?

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.

Hit the flip for Blake’s views on religion, dating and his experiences as a new dad.

Photo Credit: GQ/SebastianKim

On His Religious Beliefs:

Were there religious teachings that you feel like you grew out of or you reconsidered when you came out to Los Angeles?

I hate when I see Christians, or whatever religion it is, protesting gays and having signs that say, like, “God hates gays.” Because I’ve studied a lot of different religions; going to Christian school, we had a class where we would look at different religions, and we would kind of break them down and compare and contrast. And the Bible, take the Bible. So you believe in the Bible? God used women who were prostitutes, He used people that were stealers, people that were considered sinners, whatever the term may be, and He used them as His…to be examples of His teachings and things. Not make an example out of them, but actually use them. So, like, how can you say that God hates anybody?

Not to put gay men and women on the same level as—

No, no, no, no. I’m saying, how could He be mad at somebody for liking the same sex? I don’t get it. And it also makes me mad, because as a religious person, it makes you look bad. I think it’s unfortunate.

On Fatherhood:

What else is in your life that’s not basketball? You have a son, right?

He’s 11 months old. He’ll be 1 on August first.

What have you learned from fatherhood so far?

This is what everybody says, and I didn’t really get it. People were like, “Oh, it’s so life-changing, it makes you think about things in a different way,” and you’re always like, “Oh yeah, totally.” But then, when it happens, you’re like, “Whoa. All those people were right!” I just feel changed, in a way. I really look forward to spending time with this little person who can’t talk, can’t do anything for himself besides chew and eat. [laughs]

Are you the father you hoped you’d be?

I wish I was able to be around more. The thing I hate the most is being gone for like two weeks and only seeing him on FaceTime. I missed the first time he rolled over, which isn’t a huge thing, but at the time I was like, “Man.” I had—not a breakdown, but I just had a moment where I was like, “This sucks!” You know, just missing stuff like that. But at the same time, it makes the stuff that I don’t miss that much more special.

On Dating:

How do you date women now?

That’s probably been the biggest trial-and-error area of my life. And I can’t say today I have it down completely. But I was fortunate. I dated a girl my first couple of years out here, and it was great. We got along great. And eventually that ended, but still today we’re very cool. But it’s really been trial-and-error. And there were a couple of times where I didn’t get burned in the sense of, like, you know, getting money taken or anything like that, but just like, whenever it ended, it ended poorly, and then kind of got put out there a little bit. And it’s just kind of an eye-opening experience. But it’s hard, man. Like, there’s so many… People just think about L.A. and they think, “Oh, there’s so many beautiful women out here,” and things of that nature. But it is so hard to find just like a decent, like straight, you know, across-the-line, just like good girl out here. And I think part of it might be because I’m used to, you know, the midwestern kind of girls, and things like that. But I honestly haven’t really truly dated anybody for a while. Not in a real close sense.

It’s kinda refreshing to hear a baller speak on how hard it is to find a nice decent woman these days. Like Fonzworth and 3000 said, ladies are practically extinct!

You can read the full GQ interview with Blake HERE

Photo Credit: GQ/SebastianKim

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