NBA

Blake Griffin Wishes He’d Never Said “Lob City”

When Blake Griffin euphorically proclaimed Clippers games would be “Lob City” thanks to the acquisition of Chris Paul, an instant phenomenon was born, complete with t-shirts. Of course, nothing the Clippers do could possibly live up to the initial nonstop alley-oop fantasy inspired by pairing one of basketball’s great point guards with two of its most athletic big men (Griffin and DeAndre Jordan), but right now the Clippers find themselves 3-2, full of promise…and hating that catchy “Lob City” tagline.

Sadly, while that name might have been a marketer’s dream, for the players, it…just kind of got old after a while. ESPN’s Arash Markazi captured a few of Griffin’s thoughts on his own beautiful creation, and he sounds like he wishes it would all just go away:

“It’s unfortunate. It’s one of those things where we understand it, but that’s not what we’re about. Before the game we’re not going out thinking, ‘All right, its Lob City tonight.’ We’re just trying to win games and trying to get better.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOO-RING!

Honestly, though, Griffin probably did dash the hopes of tons of NBA fans by confirming that the Clippers in fact don’t fire themselves up by imagining the crazy dunks they’re about to throw down. Markazi even went so far as to say that Griffin “wishes he would have never said it.” And if you think he hates the phrase now, wait until you hear about the guy who was throwing all those theoretical lobs:

Simply uttering the word “lob” draws an immediate roll of the eyes from Paul, who will usually switch the topic to half-court offense, tight defense or any other aspect of the game.

“It’s something we can’t control,” Paul said. “We are a complete team, and we want to continue to be a complete team. That’s the only way we’re going to win games. It doesn’t matter if you get 10 lobs and lose the game. It’s all about winning at the end of the day.”

OK, fine, yes, for the Clippers as a basketball team, it’s better that they focus on the entire game, and what they need to do to win. And really, who needs lobs anyway? You can totally come up with a sweet nickname that has nothing to do with lobs. Like… “Fundamentally-Sound City.” That’s…that’s cool. Real cool. Oh, and what about… “Focused On Overall Improvement City”? Sounds totally…awesome…[sobs uncontrollably for hours]

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