The Los Angeles Clippers may not be to blame for lack of notice on Blake Griffin trade

The Los Angeles Clippers may not deserve all of the blame for Blake Griffin finding out he was traded via Twitter.

The NBA world was shocked on Monday night as Blake Griffin was seemingly moved from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Detroit Pistons out of nowhere. Apparently, even Blake himself was shocked. In his debut press conference with Detroit, Griffin talked about the disappointment of finding out about the trade via Twitter:

"The only thing I just wish I had known or had the opportunity to talk to somebody beforehand. Finding out through Twitter, through other people is a tough way to find out when you’ve been with a franchise for so long."

It has to hurt. Blake played for the Clippers for his whole career. He was the face of the franchise. To hear that you are being traded from Twitter of all places, especially after just re-signing long term in the summer, has to feel awful. There’s just no way it doesn’t.

However, what if I told you that this might be a symptom of something else besides the Clippers organization not being courteous to their superstar?

Sports Media

I will preface this by saying that the Clippers, no matter what other points are made, still deserve some of the blame. When a player has given as much to your organization and community as Blake did, you do everything you can to make sure that they hear it from you first. That did not happen.

But, in this day and age, what time frame does an organization really have to inform their player of a trade? Let’s take a look at the events from Monday.

Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN’s star NBA reporter, sent out the following tweet on Monday afternoon.

Check the time stamp. This came out at 6:02 PM EST. Not even 30 minutes later, Woj sent out his next tweet:

So, the Clippers went from “engaged in serious talks” to agreeing to the trade in around half an hour. Assuming Woj’s information came from someone actively involved in the trade talks, who was supposed to tell Blake that the trade was happening? Should they have shot him a text that the trade would probably happen, while still knocking out details? What would be the right way to handle this?

There’s even reason to think that Blake was fully aware he was being shopped around, especially after his supposed odd comments made around a fan just last week.

The Clippers may be somewhat at fault, but Blake Griffin finding out about the trade via Twitter is more of an indictment on the way sports media works today than it is on the franchise.

Adrian Wojnarowski, Brian Windhorst, Shams Charania, David Aldridge. The list goes on and on. More and more media members are getting plugged into front offices and locker rooms than ever before.

Hell, just weeks ago, our little fan blog managed to break the news that the Houston Rockets were trying to break into the Clippers’ locker room. So how, in all of this, does an organization have a chance to talk to a player and let them know that they are being traded?

Maybe they didn’t have a chance

Who is to say that it wasn’t the Pistons who told Woj about the trade? They were, up until Monday, an afterthought for the casual fan. They just opened a new stadium and are looking to fill seats. What better way to drum up excitement than announcing a blockbuster trade?

The sooner it gets out, the better. Fans will start checking seats. They’ll order custom Blake Griffin jerseys prior to real ones becoming available. National interest in the team will spike. The Clips could have had full intentions of telling Blake he was traded, but Woj got the story from Detroit before they had a chance. We may never know.

It happens everywhere

It’s not just the NBA that suffers from this issue. Just one day after Blake was traded, the NFL had a similar occurrence. The Washington Redskins with the Kansas City Chiefs for quaterback Alex Smith. Caught in the middle of this? Kendall Fuller, a young cornerback.

Adam Schefter of ESPN tweeted that the trade had been agreed upon, to which Kendall Fuller seemed surprised.

https://twitter.com/KeFu11er/status/958550335668269056

Moments later, Fuller realized that this was true and he was, in fact, on his way to Kansas City.

https://twitter.com/KeFu11er/status/958567846459658245

So, within two days, two players from two different sports both found out via Twitter that they were being traded. It may be a coincidence, but this happens too often. In this day and age, everybody wants to be the first one to break the story.

Go back to Woj. He is able to tweet out NBA draft picks before Adam Silver is able to get up to the podium and announce them. It’s great for the fans to be able to know what’s happening with their team instantly, but players are starting to get scorned by it.

Times are changing

Whether you are for it or against it, this is the way the world is trending. Why wait for news to show up on the television, when you can hop online and see the story instantly? Why stay up for the midnight Sports Center when I can hop on Reddit or Twitter and see all the highlights I need. The same goes for breaking sports stories.

So, next time you see a player say he found out about something from Twitter prior to hearing it from his team, maybe stop and think for a second. Yes, the team could have let him know, but did they have a chance?