Blake Griffin first established a relationship with Brad Stevens when Griffin played forward for the Pistons, and Stevens was still the Celtics‘ head coach.
At the time, Griffin made more than $30 million per year, and the Celtics couldn’t afford to pay him. But Griffin and Stevens struck up a rapport, and that rapport stuck with Griffin over the last two years.
So when Stevens and the Celtics came calling to see if Griffin wanted to join the team this season, Griffin had a lot of reasons to say yes.
“Boston has always been one of those places as an NBA player where I feel like guys have a pretty cool experience playing there,” Griffin said.