Blake Griffin got really candid about a major breach of trust during his career that permanently altered his perspective on sports psychology. Appearing on the Friends Keep Secrets video podcast alongside hosts Lil Dicky, Kristin Batalucco, and Benny Blanco, the All-Star spoke about an incident from his early career with the Los Angeles Clippers. His tenure with the Clippers was glamorous at the prime of the Lob City era. But behind the scenes, the locker room was not without its dysfunction.

Before a 2019 mandate made mental health resources compulsory league-wide, teams like the LA Clippers were hiring sports psychologists to talk to players. In 2012, Griffin had a mandatory session with a newly hired team psychologist. That chat ended with him realizing this professional was breaking confidentiality.

To create a more comfortable ambience, Griffin invited the psychologist to his Manhattan Beach home to conduct the session on his balcony. It was seemingly a productive session till the psychologist left.

“I put my phone in the charger, took a shower, came back, and I see a missed call from him in a voicemail,” Griffin told the hosts. “So, I clicked the voicemail and it’s him and he goes, ‘Hey, coach. Just left Blake’s house. We had a good talk. Some really interesting things.’”

The accidental voicemail provided undeniable evidence that the psychologist was leaking highly personal information from these sessions to the Clippers staff. The immediate revelation completely put off Griffin from the entire profession.

“First of all, I can’t believe he f—– up that bad cuz that’s really f—– up,” Griffin recalled. “And second of all, I was like, ‘Well, f— that. But I’m never seeing another sports psychologist ever again.’”

Griffin stuck to that decision for most of his career. But he does admit to the hosts that his stance has changed since retirement.

Blake Griffin found his own mental health resources

Perhaps it was for the better that Blake Griffin didn’t have to worry about the staff finding out deeply personal details  anymore. 2012 was when he emerged as the high-flying pillar of the Lob City era alongside Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan, and Jamal Crawford.

Mental health professionals responded to his story with shock. While they confirmed that the professionals hired by the team would most likely report to the management, it should’ve been made explicitly clear to the players like Griffin before the session began.

They acknowledged that they work for a team and report to them, not the player. However, from the sounds of it, Griffin didn’t have the full details for informed consent. It was purely by accident that he found out these sessions are not confidential.

Though his trust was broken, Griffin clarified that his negative stance is strictly limited to team-hired psychologists. When asked by the podcast hosts if he currently avoids mental health resources entirely, Griffin confirmed that he has been seeing a private therapist in recent years. He avoided it during his playing career but has found standard personal therapy good for his mental health.