DeAndre Jordan: No rift, dissension in locker room

Problems? What problems?

During the DeAndre Jordan flip-flop drama this summer, reports surfaced about tension in the Clippers locker room — Chris Paul wasn’t dishing out enough high fives, and Jordan didn’t feel involved enough in the offense. He reportedly felt he was the third wheel behind CP3 and Blake Griffin.

Now, like every other aspect of this deal, the Clippers are trying to play down the drama. Here is what the Clippers said on their media day Friday at UC Irvine, via the Los Angeles Times, starting with Jordan.

“I think that there was forced tension because of everything we all heard that we said about each other, which was not true at all,” Jordan said at Clippers’ media day on Friday. “It was just the outside, and we never asked each other about it.

“These guys are my brothers. I talk to them every day. Yeah, there’s times that we bump heads on the court, but five minutes later, we’re good because it’s constructive, it’s for the right reasons: We want to win. ... There’s not any tension; we don’t not like each other. And all three of us [Jordan, Paul and Blake Griffin] are going to be here for a very long time. This is our team; this is our unit. There was no clearing of the air. We just had a sit-down to tell them I was going to be in a Clipper uniform this year.”

Blake Griffin added:

“There’s one thing that I will say about this situation: There’s never really been a tension. There’s never been a moment where I felt, like, ‘Oh man, this isn’t good. I don’t feel comfortable in this situation.’

“I tell people this all the time: The person I’m closest with in life is my brother, and my brother and I bump heads all the time. Growing up, we used to fight, but that didn’t mean that we don’t love each other and that doesn’t mean we weren’t always there for each other. I’d take a bullet for my brother.”

Okay, but the tension — or whatever you want to call it — was real enough that Jordan said he would play for the Dallas Mavericks. If everything were puppy dogs and rainbows in the Clipper locker room (and with the pecking order), we would not have had all the drama this summer. That doesn’t mean that things were bad, or that DJ and CP3 don’t get along, but there was something going on.

But the Clippers have put that behind them. They will not have to talk about it again... until they struggle at some point this season. Then watch the rumors fly again.