NBA Star Blake Griffin Shares His Thoughts on Ex-Clippers Owner Donald Sterling Scandal

By Matt Lloyd Sep 22, 2014 02:17 PM EDT

NBA season is just around the corner and Los Angeles Clippers star forward Blake Griffin will be on the cover of GQ's first ever age issue for October 2014, with the issue releasing on newsstands Tuesday, September 23.

Along with doing the photo shoot for the cover, the 25-year-old did a sit down interview with GQ and of course one of the hot topics was his ex-owner, Donald Sterling, and the scandal around his racist comments and eventual removal from the team. Here are a few of this answers from the interview.

On Clippers owner Donald Sterling's racist tape: "It was unfortunate. I mean, for me, like I said, the first thing I ever Googled about the man, the first thing that popped up was 'racist.' So I was aware. I hate to say this, and it might sound ignorant, but I wasn't surprised that all this came up. I was one of the guys who didn't want to do anything. I didn't want to give this one incident the power that it doesn't deserve."

On religious tolerance: "I hate when I see Christians, or whatever religion it is, protesting gays and having signs that say, like, 'God hates gays.' How could He be mad at somebody for liking the same sex? I don't get it. And it also makes me mad, because as a religious person, it makes you look bad."

You can check out the whole interview and more pictures from Griffin's photo shoot at GQ.com.

Griffin played college basketball for the University of Oklahoma where he was named the Consensus National Player of the Year his sophomore season. Griffin left college after two seasons to enter the 2009 NBA Draft; he was selected first overall by the Clippers.

In his first season, he broke his left kneecap during the final pre-season game, had surgery, and missed the entire 2009-10 season. Griffin made his NBA debut as a rookie the following season, in which he was selected as an All-Star, won the 2011 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, and was named the NBA Rookie of the Year. In 2011, Sports Illustrated called him one of the NBA's 15 Greatest Rookies of All Time. Griffin's been an All-Star every season he has played and has helped make the Clippers perennial playoff contenders.

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