LOS ANGELES -- As the Clippers prepare to depart for Oklahoma City and try to avenge their lone loss of the season, Blake Griffin brushed aside notions that those close to him would be recruiting the star power forward to play for his hometown team after the season.
"People that I talk to and my friends and family from back home, I think they're ... I would say true friends and family, where they know that my main focus is this season and this team," Griffin said after the Clippers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 111-80 on Wednesday night. "And they know that I enjoy playing here and I love this team, coaching staff, everybody. So they know that that's my main focus. So I think they pretty much know not to bring that up."
The five-time All-Star was born and raised in Oklahoma City and attended Oklahoma for two years, where he was the national college player of the year in 2009. Griffin was drafted first overall in 2009 by the Clippers and has spent his entire NBA career in Los Angeles.
The former OU star had his college jersey retired during the 2015-16 season, and he affirmed before this season that he had not considered the prospects of free agency.
"It's honestly nothing I even really think about," Griffin said to SiriusXM NBA Radio during the preseason. "Haven't had a conversation with anybody. That includes friends, family, agents, coaches, teammates. ... It's not a conversation I have. I got a lot of basketball left to play this year. I got a full season, postseason, still got some preseason. So that's on the back on my mind. I'll deal with that when the appropriate time comes. But right now isn't the time."
Griffin is in the fourth year of a five-year max extension he signed with the Clippers in the 2012-13 season and has an early termination option to enter free agency after this season.