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Do you see the sweat, or am I crying? up a little bit.
Search this video
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It's beating up and it looks like I'm at a game.
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I think I'm crying, actually. Are my ears bleeding? Are we good? Hey, what's going on?
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And happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
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For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans, and you're watching Hot Ones.
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It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
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And today, we're joined by Pistons forward Blake Griffin.
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He's a five-time NBA All-Star, four-time All-Pro, former number one overall draft pick and slam dunk champion.
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But can he make a Thanksgiving feast out of the wings of death? We'll find out today.
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Blake, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
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How are you with spicy food? I'm okay.
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I'm like middle of the road. I guess we'll find out. I don't know. All right.
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So, this first one is the classic, and we'll start at the handle. All right. It's good.
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So, Thanksgiving, it's one of the biggest sports days of the year.
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So, right off the bat, we're diving into the metrics.
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And early on in your career, it was rare that you'd ever shoot a three, and now you shoot as many as six per game.
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Is that Blake Griffin changing?
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Is that the league changing? Or a little bit of both?
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I think it's a little bit of both.
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Over the years, I think you've seen more, especially for power forwards, you know, start to shoot threes.
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I was kind of a late addition to that.
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Really like like in the last couple years I started, but that's just the way everything goes now. So, got to keep up.
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I know that talking technique is boring, but when you decide to overhaul your stroke game like that, what goes on behind the closed gym doors?
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Uh it's a lot of frustration and a lot of like balls basketballs being kicked all over the gym in frustration.
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Um it's just a long process of like completely rebuilding your shot and trusting that you're starting from the foundation and building all the way up, but I'm glad I I glad I put the time in.
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So, throughout pro sports, but particularly in the NBA, there's this spotlight on advanced analytics.
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Do you ever get nerdy about things like player impact estimate and deferred defensive rebound chances?
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What are the things that you keep an eye on?
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I don't really care about those as much.
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Um to me now like with all the advanced analytics, there's you can make an argument for any player or any stat you want.
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So, for me it's about the eye test.
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I know it's kind of old school, but like you can sit down and watch a player and know that he's a good player just by watching him.
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And I don't really need any statistics to tell me otherwise.
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You know, you're such a pervasive dunker, but this year you're attempting as many field goals as anybody and shooting pretty well.
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Do you ever feel typecast as a player?
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Do you ever feel mislabeled? Um a little bit.
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I mean, throughout the years like like you said early on I I was pretty much in the paint every every minute of every game trying to dunk.
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Um and now as I've slowly moved out away from the hoop, every time I go out to warm up there's like kids watching us warm up and they're always like, "Dunk it!"
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And I just keep shooting threes. They're like, "No! Boo! Like dunk it!"
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So, you know, I feel that a little bit, but you know, I got to I got to do what I got to do.
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You got to do what's best for Blake. That's right.
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All right, so this next one Guajillo out of Texas, Humble House. This is like mild? Mhm. Oh, okay. That's nice. All right. I can do this. Maybe.
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For those of us who've experienced neither, what's a bigger thrill?
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Putting someone on a poster in a sold-out arena, or getting a laugh from a small comedy crowd?
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Probably probably the the poster on the in the in the sold-out arena, but the getting a laugh in the comedy crowd is is for me is pretty special.
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And you have some bullet points on the resume.
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If you look at your Just for Laughs set, you did that roast battle with Jeffrey Ross, you did slam poetry at the Laugh Factory.
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What is your proudest comedy achievement so far?
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The show that I did at Just for Laughs Comedy Festival was I I hosted a show for five straight nights.
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So, five nights in a row I had to get up and do like open the show like 10 to 15 minutes.
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And the first night was the most terrifying thing I've ever done in my life.
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And then as it went on, I kind of got a little bit more confidence.
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But um it's it's it's scary.
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And you've put together a pretty amazing set of tutors including co-creator of the Chappelle Show, Neal Brennan. Yes. Yes.
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What sort of tools, tips, tricks has he given you to help you with the craft? Uh he's given me a lot.
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I mean, honestly, if there's anybody who's been like sort of a mentor for me in the comedy world, it's it's been him.
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I mean, just from punching up jokes here and there or just giving me stuff to read or even like technical stuff like you know, come out and move the mic stand and like you know, get comfortable, act like you've been there before.
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So, um he's definitely been my my comedy coach, if you will.
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Who's the funniest trash talker in the league?
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Who has the best on-court roast game?
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Kevin Garnett had the best trash talking cuz he would like would never look at you, but he would say like crazy stuff.
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And he'd be like you can't you can't even guard me.
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And you you knew he was talking to you, but he would never look at you.
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So, it was like a weird like you couldn't look back at him.
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And like you you couldn't look away cuz you it was just like a a very intimidating thing.
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Like he would just be talking and you just kind of like have to look around or like try to like get your teammates' attention and like make it conversation.
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Um but now he's gone, you know, nobody really nobody holds a candle to him. All right.
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So, this next one, smoked onions from Butterfly Bakery. Okay. Delicious.
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Oh, it's got a little kick. A little bit. All right. We're good.
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So, staying on the topic of comedy, I that you shied away from writing about the NBA early on when you were working on things, but have since developed a write what you know approach. Right.
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If you were ever to do a show where you lampoon the life of an NBA player like Mark Wahlberg did with Hollywood actors in Entourage, what sorts of things would you focus on?
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I would probably focus on just the lifestyle, like the parts that people don't really get to see, like the bus rides in the locker room before the game.
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You always hear when guys retire, that's what they miss the most is like the camaraderie, the conversations, stuff like that.
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Is there anything funny about being an NBA superstar that no one else can relate to?
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Um I think people just yelling at you all the time.
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And them feeling like it's okay.
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There's always somebody in the front row that always just like has to say something and so you're like 5 ft away from somebody like this and they're like yelling at you that you suck.
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And you you don't really say anything, you just kind of like look at them and you kind of like go on about your day and like no other scenario in life does that happen.
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Um where you're that close without at least like a car length in between. Right.
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In no other scenario would somebody like that say that to somebody who's 6 ft 8, 6 ft 9. Right. Right. Exactly.
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So, you buy a ticket, you get a lot of confidence. Not bad.
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Is just one bite is fine? One bite.
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You know, you can commit to it however you want, you know.
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If you want to clean wings, if you're hungry, you can clean wings. Okay.
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I'm just going to pace myself for now. That's smart.
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maybe go back through if you have more questions.
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So, we have this running joke with Hot Ones creator Chris Schonberger and his dog Ruggles who could probably use some discipline. He's an 85-lb maniac.
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Do you have any advice from somebody who once owned one of the most well-trained German Shepherds on the planet?
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I do I just moved him out here to to Detroit and so for the last like 2 months it's been like kind of a nightmare cuz he's just all out of sorts, man.
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He's just like he doesn't know what's going on.
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He's not used to like all this room and stuff.
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So, I'm probably not the best person to ask, but um a lot of love, a lot of attention, you know, always seems to do the trick.
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And Rook has kind of an interesting backstory.
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Can you talk about how he came into your life?
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Yeah, so I my house got broken into like three Oh, yeah, it's got a little kick to it, huh? All right.
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Um like 3 years ago my house got broken into.
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And so, I was like talking to somebody about, you know, possibly getting a home security dog. Here it comes.
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So, I like eventually found this guy who trains basically like police dogs, dogs for the FBI, and all that.
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This dog's like a He was a drug dog.
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He was like a home or a home security dog, like everything.
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Um so, he knows like 40 commands, most in German.
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Um he's pretty intense and and scares people.
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So, um but he's also like just the biggest like softy ever if you actually like get to know him.
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So, he's a very, very smart dog.
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It's pretty It's pretty impressive.
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All right, Blake, are you ready to move on? Uh yeah, sure. Nice. It's good.
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All right, Blake, we have a recurring segment on our show called Explain That Gram, where we do a deep dive in our guest's Instagram, pull interesting pictures that need more context.
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We're doing a little bit of a curveball on the Thanksgiving special. Okay.
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We're going to do Explain That Poster.
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We've pulled some iconic Blake Griffin dunk photos, and you just say what you remember about the play, the game, that time in your career, and we'll just go from there. Does that sound good? Cool.
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All right, laptop, please.
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How you doing so far, my man? Not bad.
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Um you know, we're we're halfway through, I guess.
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And you're hanging in there. Yeah, I'm all right. Oh. Pau Gasol game.
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Um I remember after I dunked this, my teammate DeAndre Jordan came and just shoved me so hard that I almost fell down.
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Uh you know, after you dunk, you try to act cool, and he just kind of like disrupted that whole thing for me cuz I had to concentrate on not falling over, but um that was a that was a fun one.
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What makes a good poster for you?
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Is it the height of the guy that you're dunking on?
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Like what is the notch in the belt?
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I think Yeah, I think so.
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I think like the bigger the guy, the better defender, better shot blocker, um the better the poster.
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So, yeah, definitely that I guess, you know, Pau was a 7-footer, so that one You got him twice in this game. Yeah, that's right. All right.
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Up next, this season, that's on Joel Embiid. Yeah.
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Again, I remember trying to like play it cool afterwards, and one of my teammates was like looking at me like running back down the court like looking at me, yelling at me, and I was just like looking at him like, "No, don't like Like let's let's stay focused here."
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Like it was a pretty intense game.
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Um but that was a another fun one.
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Do you remember this one? I do. I do.
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That's uh Timofey Mozgov. Yeah, Timofey.
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Um that was uh kind of like a a breakout game for me in a in a way.
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Like it was my rookie year, probably like 12-15 games into the season, and I just kind of remember like after that dunk, like it just never really slowed down for me.
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Like that's kind of when it like picked up, and it's just like it's just been crazy since then, and and I always kind of like go back to that time that that was like kind of the dunk that did it.
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Where are we getting on the Scoville rating here?
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About 10 times hotter than a jalapeño here. Okay. All right.
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So, I want to stay on the topic of dunks.
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Can you draw back the curtain on what it's like to prepare for a dunk contest?
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Do you take pitches, work with a team, write a bunch of things down?
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Is it kind of like comedy where you want all the creative control?
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Um no, I was I was very on my own for that one.
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The thing that I knew I wanted to do was was use use car, and originally I wanted to use like a convertible and like have it be driven out on the court by my teammates.
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Have like four teammates in it, have one toss it up, and like jump over the middle of it.
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And I wasn't allowed to use a convertible.
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I had to use like a Kia cuz it was an NBA sponsor.
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And I don't know if you stood next to a Kia Optima, but it's it's a big car.
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So, I was like, all right, I still want to do it, but I'll just jump over the hood and have a teammate out the sunroof.
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It worked, but then people were like, oh, you didn't jump over a car, you jumped over the hood.
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I'm like, have you seen the hood, man?
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It's like, you know, uh so, I got some heat for it, but you know, I I I that was a that was a fun a fun dunk contest.
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Do you think that the public has been desensitized to dunks with YouTube and the internet?
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You know, there was a time where the big showcase was the dunk contest, and now you can go on YouTube, you can see a million different kinds of dunks.
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And Twitter it smacks you right in the face.
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Do you think it's harder to impress people these days? Yeah, a little bit.
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I mean, but it's also cool because like there's guys that aren't in the NBA who maybe aren't even playing overseas who are unbelievable dunkers.
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So, you know, you get to see these like dunk highlights all the time.
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So, yeah, maybe the dunk contest has taken a little bit of a hit, but overall in terms of like the the scope of dunks we're spoiled. Yeah, exactly.
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So, it's it's great for basketball, it's great for the dunk fan, but maybe not the dunk contest.
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I'm just looking at these like this one has a caution sign. This one is like Medusa.
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And that one's Yeah, gets a little real with this one. This one? Mhm. Yeah, here it comes. There we go. My nose is sweating.
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I got to just wipe wipe my face with more hot sauce. All right. Yeah.
13:23
So, I once read a great comment that you made where you said, sometimes in the moment when I'm doing a press conference, one of my favorite things is to watch reporters."
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What amuses you about observing the sports media?
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I think uh Sometimes you'll see a guy who's like maybe you don't see often.
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Um so like maybe he's just like a new guy or whatever.
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And they're just like gearing up for their question, gearing up for their question, like ready to ask it.
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And my favorite is like when they get the mic and they're like um and you can tell they forgot their question.
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And then they just have to ask you like a softball question and you look at them like, "Ah, you blew it, man.
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That was like your one time."
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Um but most of the time like me Yeah, it's hot. That's a good one. Yeah.
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Um most of the time they ask pretty good questions, so uh What's something that the beat reporters, the ESPNs of the world, when they cover the NBA, what's something that they don't focus on enough and what's something that they focus on too much?
14:20
I think the pro- I don't know if they all talk if like before they start asking questions in the press conference, they're all like, "Oh, like this, this, and this."
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Cuz they all ask the same questions just in different ways.
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Like if I was a reporter, I would just listen to the first four questions and then ask something totally different. So uh I'm okay.
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All right, so this next one is the bomb, beyond insanity. All right.
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Sometimes you just got to dive Oh, yeah, you can taste the hotness right away. That's uh Yeah. Yeah.
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Go for a little more there. Oh. Okay. I'm starting to sweat.
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So you're one of the athletes who's truly transcended sports.
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From everything from stand-up to film to unpaid internships to Funny or Die.
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So, what I want to do is bounce some of the Blake Griffin off-the-court off-piste pop culture moments, and you can just give me the highlights, okay? Sure.
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What was the more awkward nude experience?
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Shooting with Broad City or with ESPN's Body Issue?
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Uh I think ESPN's Body Issue cuz I had to wear like a I had to wear like a thong, basically, pretty much.
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Uh so, that was like uncomfortable.
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The Broad City one, I was wearing like these uhm I don't know, like Spanx-type things, which is awkward, but not as bad as wearing a thong.
16:05
What rap shout-out are you more proud of between the following?
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Gucci Mane, "I ain't Blake Griffin. I don't drive no Kia.
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If it ain't 10 mil, I can't sign no deal."
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Or Meek Mill, "I slam dunk in that [ __ ] Blake Griffin, your ho."
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Uhm well, Meek Mill came first.
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It was like a long time ago.
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So, I really like that one, but I I I like both guys a lot.
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Uhm and, you know, Gucci incorporating the Kia thing is pretty is pretty good.
16:35
Do you have a favorite Blake Griffin name check in hip-hop?
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Just the ones you said were great.
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What was the more memorable experience?
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Doing a live read of Space Jam at UCB That one's fine. I'm sorry, go ahead.
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or acting alongside Whitney Cummings in The Female Brain?
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The Female Brain is awesome.
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Uhm like you said earlier, Neal Brennan and Whitney both, you know, co-wrote that.
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And then Whitney directed it, so that was fun. It was a lot of fun.
17:09
And then at Complex kind of a few weeks ago, Allen Iverson said of NBA style, "Every night is Halloween."
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As someone who's graced the cover of GQ, what are your thoughts on the current state of NBA off-court style?
17:20
Um it's pretty exciting cuz it's like a it's almost like a what's you know, what's going to happen next like who's going to outdo who or like what crazy outfit is is Russ going to wear or whoever now.
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Um so it's always fun to kind of see that.
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The next thing, can you see the sweat or am I crying? little bit. It's beading up.
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It looks like I'm at a game.
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I think I'm crying actually. Are my ears bleeding? Are we good?
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Are you ready to move on? Yeah. Sure.
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All right, so this next one is the extra hot sauce. This is wild. Okay.
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Are you sure my ears aren't bleeding? Dude, I got you. No blood? All right.
18:20
The second I see blood something's coming out of them.
18:26
All right, Blake we're almost at the top of the mountain, but before we get there, I want to take it down memory lane to Oklahoma City, a place I can tell has a special place in your heart. Yeah.
18:35
If I only have one afternoon, should I visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum That's a good one.
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or climb the SandRidge Sky Trail? Uh uh Careful. Oh, yeah.
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I really like the uh Cowboy Museum. It's pretty cool.
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Oklahoma has like a rich cow town like cowboy history, so if you're into that type of stuff, you know, go for it.
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Onion burgers, overrated or underrated? Underrated. Very underrated.
19:02
There's a really good place uh The Mother Tucker?
19:08
Yeah, Mother Tucker's a good one. Not spicy at all.
19:10
It's was just nice and bland.
19:13
What was the best thing and what was the worst thing about your dad being your high school basketball coach?
19:18
Um the best thing like I didn't realize it at the time, but like afterwards I was so thankful cuz he just really like pushed me way harder than maybe another coach would have and he knew exactly how to you know, get the most out of me.
19:32
The worst thing was like well, him being a coach and also a teacher at the high school that I went to like he heard about everything and I I got in trouble a few times, so um there was no like oh, maybe my parents won't find out about this cuz like my dad was three doors down. Yeah, okay. Thanks.
19:51
All right, Blake Griffin.
19:53
Uh why are you using Why do you have the bottle? This is the last dab.
20:00
We call it the last dab because it's tradition around here to put a little extra on the last wing and today on our third ever Thanksgiving special, we're starting a new tradition with the turkey leg.
20:10
We will be dabbing Come on and Chris a turkey leg instead of a wing.
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Does this already have stuff on it? Nope, this one's naked.
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So, that's why I got the bottle out.
20:29
Put a little extra on the turkey leg.
20:32
You don't have to I will. if you don't want to. It's fine. And then dive right in. Cheers.
20:55
Coming at you from all sides here on the Thanksgiving special of Hot Ones and what a feast it's been, Blake Griffin.
21:02
From the classic through the bomb and now a turkey leg with the last dab and as we close it out, I'd just like to say what I'm thankful for while holding this turkey leg.
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I'm thankful for my dad, fresh out of surgery and doing well. I love you, Dad.
21:16
I want to say thank you to the crew who all year long has traveled all across the country popping this setup, working from sunrise to sunset to make this silly show go.
21:26
And then finally, and the biggest thank you of all, to the fans who've now rocked with us through seven seasons and into the third ever Hot Ones Thanksgiving special. Thank you. Thank you for all this.
21:45
What are you thankful for, Blake? The milk right there. That's it.
21:49
Right now, that's all I'm thankful for.
21:51
Well, look at you, you legend.
21:51
10 chicken wings up, 10 chicken wings down, and even a turkey leg to boot.
21:55
And now there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you, my man.
21:59
This camera, this camera, or this camera, let the people know what you have going on in your life.
22:05
Um right now, man, it's basketball season, so that's all I'm focused on, but um got a lot of really cool stuff going on in charity world.
22:14
Um starting to work on next year's Comedy by Blake, so um that'll be a lot of fun, so hopefully you guys check it out. Good job, Blake. Good job. Thank you.
22:26
Did you have a good time? I did. That was awesome.
22:29
Well, it's good to have you in the seat finally. How are you spicy food?
22:30
You crank it up a little bit? I a little bit.
22:32
I don't I don't get crazy.
22:34
I This is going to be all the comedic elements that you want is going to happen. Look at me.
22:37
I'm I'm pasty as hell, you know, salt and pepper was about as hot as we went in our house.
22:47
Hey, what's going on, spice lords?
22:47
This is Sean Evans checking in by his lonesome, and you know what that means.
22:52
It's time for another hot sauce PSA.
22:52
And for 2 years, we've been working on making the perfect entry-level sauce, something that's good for everyone.
23:00
Number one on our board, and now it is finally here.
23:03
The Classic is our contemporary twist on the original vinegar-based sauces throughout American history with chile de arbol peppers and garlic for that perfect balance.
23:12
As always, people who order the Hot Ones monthly subscription box got it first, but now it's available for everyone. Heatonist. com, Heatonist.
23:21
com to pick up the Classic. The Classic. It's for the people.