Finally, no more side-stepping Clippers comments concerning Griffin

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Walking into the Clippers Training Center in Playa Vista, there was little doubt about whom the Clippers were taking first.

(Like there was anyway, right?)

• Obvious fact No. 1: Many stacks of paper sat on the working media table, including a stack of Blake Griffin bios, but that’s the only such player bio the team distributed.

• Obvious fact No. 2: Around the corner, a crisp No. 1 Clippers jersey with Griffin’s name on the back hung in a display case – it was put there a few days ago – next to a team placard signed by Griffin when he visited for his workout earlier this month.

And at about 4:39 p.m. PDT, the Clippers made it official, selecting the all-everything Oklahoma forward.

Not long afterward, Clippers spokesman Joe Safety stood on the press conference stage set up inside the gym, announcing the team would introduce Griffin at noon Monday.

But Safety did so calling Griffin “the selected player,” still using the same “mysterious” jargon the Clippers have been using since they landed the lottery pick in late May.

Why couldn’t they state the obvious? Because they weren’t “supposed” to; the NBA doesn’t like it, and ESPN, which broadcasts the draft, doesn’t either because it kills the suspense.

So, since the pick was official, Safety was corrected.

“You don’t have to call him the ‘selected player’ anymore,” a reporter quipped.

“I’m allowed to say his name now?” Safety said, laughing. “I’m actually going to let Mike [Dunleavy, the Clippers’ coach] finally come up and be able to say his name.”

Cue the suspense…

“We’re finally able to say we took Blake Griffin with the No. 1 pick in the draft,” Dunleavy said, in a relieved sort of way.

Griffin, on a conference call, said he wasn’t on pins and needles about the pick either.

“I felt pretty solid, but in the back of my mind I kept saying, ‘Don’t get too comfortable because something could happen.’ I just tried to stay ready.”

A press release had already been written with the information about the pick, and, with Dunleavy’s comments, was quickly handed out. The Clippers’ website soon changed too, Griffin’s face with a quote appearing on the front.

“ ‘The competitor to be feared the most is the one who never worries about others at all and goes on making himself better all the time.’ – Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers.”

Even Griffin jerseys were available.

“I hope a few of them have been bought,” Griffin said, laughing.

– Baxter Holmes