6:33PM EDT October 30. 2012 - LOS ANGELES — Clippers basketball player Blake Griffin knows not to look at Twitter comments during the season, which begins Wednesday night. The Clippers face the Memphis Grizzlies in Los Angeles. Anonymous fans can be brutal online and knock a player's confidence, Griffin told us during a recent interview at Clipper headquarters here.
We also talked about digital photography, where the 6-foot-9 NBA forward goes online to buy his shoes and clothes, and his new company, Hyperice (hyperice.com), which makes a new gadget for dealing with sports injuries, in which he and other athletes (including Olympic soccer player Hope Solo) have invested.
Those rowdy fans
"I have a Twitter account, and I follow a wide range of people, sports, news, comedians. I'll always want to check Twitter, but sometimes I can't. You'll come across things you don't want to see as a player. It's amazing what Twitter has done to the sports world. It holds professional athletes to a higher standard. I don't look at Twitter during the season. You feel you played well, you don't need that distraction. Anybody can say anything."
What do the fans say?
"I probably couldn't repeat half of it."
Big Brother
"Everybody has a camera on their phone. And anything you do can be recorded. It could be something completely innocent, but it could look like you're doing this or that."
His Instagram photos
"I try not to take pix of my food, but I have done it. Anything that's funny. On the team, if somebody falls asleep on the plane, we take pictures and post them. So that will be what my Instagram is full of this season."
Online shopping for big sizes
"It's saved my life. Now I can find any size I need." Sites like Shoebuy.com and Oddball.com sell him size-16 shoes, and he notes that many clothing retailers have big and tall sections online that aren't at their retail locations. "I go to Jcrew.com and buy all the tall sizes there. It makes it really easy."
Favorite apps
He likes Echofon to track his Twitter (off-season) on his phone and The Weather Channel to keep up on weather. His favorites are Urban Spoon and Yelp "to help find restaurants. I do it for ideas. There are so many restaurants in L.A. that I have no idea about. I'm always looking for a new place."
His new company: Hyperice
After years of putting frozen peas on his knees, he got a new way to deal with sports injuries, courtesy of the Hyperice device, which he's been showing off in online videos. "Instead of a plastic bag of ice, you fill up the Hyperice with ice, push the nozzle, and get ice across the joint, not just one area. The valve allows air to be released."
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