{"id":637276,"date":"2026-03-03T20:03:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/637276\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T20:03:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:03:19","slug":"for-years-he-was-the-guy-you-just-dont-fight-blake-griffin-reveals-the-most-intimidating-player-he-faced-in-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/637276\/","title":{"rendered":"“For years, he was the guy you just don’t fight” – Blake Griffin reveals the most intimidating player he faced in the NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many players claim to be “tough guys” in the NBA. However, with league rules in place functioning as a deterrent for physical altercations, players have had to keep their tempers in check and fists to themselves. However, according to\u00a0Blake Griffin<\/a>, there are a few players whose reputations precede them as the most intimidating guys on the court.<\/p>\n

Griffin, who is also known for his physical presence inside the shaded lane, recently revealed which players he absolutely did not want any part of during his 13-year tenure in the NBA.<\/p>\n

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A person you don’t want to mess with<\/p>\n

As a 6’9″ power forward who made a living inside the paint, Griffin regularly had to get physical with his matchup on any given night. From the likes of Kevin Garnett to Draymond Green, to Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard, Griffin has had his fair share of battles with some of the toughest players in the league. But when asked who he considered to be the most intimidating, Griffin didn’t hesitate to first name\u00a0James Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“He’s a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I think he has like nine siblings, and they’re all black belts. His parents? Black belts. So for years, he was the guy you just don’t fight,”\u00a0Griffin\u00a0disclosed<\/a>\u00a0on the “Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams” show.<\/p>\n

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With a nickname like “Bloodsport,” Johnson’s reputation as a player nobody to mess with was set in stone. A\u00a06’7″\u00a0forward from Cheyenne, Wyoming, the veteran bruiser reportedly has an immaculate 20-0 record in kickboxing and has also dabbled in mixed martial arts. In fact, he has gone on record to say that he believes that he could actually\u00a0beat MMA legend Jon Jones<\/a>\u00a0in a fight.<\/p>\n

Related: “You change the course of NBA history” – Draymond Green blasts the NBA for messing up the MVP award with the 65-game rule<\/a><\/p>\n

An unassuming presence<\/p>\n

As tough as Johnson’s reputation is in the NBA, Griffin said the latter is actually one of the most pleasant guys he has come across during his time in the league. Griffin and Johnson were teammates on the Brooklyn Nets during the 2020-21 season, where the former All-Star got to know Johnson more.<\/p>\n

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“I love JJ. He’s the coolest, nicest, most calm person,”\u00a0Blake divulged.\u00a0“And that’s usually how it is. The people who can actually fight \u2014 who can really whoop somebody \u2014 they’re not walking around trying to prove it all the time. But James Johnson? For years, he was the guy you don’t mess with.”<\/p>\n

Another All-Star who saw Johnson’s combat abilities up close was Miami Heat ace Bam Adebayo. As the story goes, a teammate of theirs\u00a0dared to call Johnson a “b\u2014ch”<\/a>\u00a0during a pickup game \u2014 something that the latter absolutely didn’t take lightly. And so, the two scrapped in the locker room to settle their differences. Bam said he tried to intervene but backed off after James told him not to.<\/p>\n

“That man calls that man a b\u2014ch,'”\u00a0Bam recalled.\u00a0“I looked at JJ and said, ‘Don’t do that.’\u00a0He said, ‘Man, listen. Stay out of this, Bam’\u2026The funniest part about it, dog, JJ ended up ballin’, beating this man up like he ain’t got no kids.”<\/p>\n

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“JJ got done, said ‘You alright?’\u00a0and walked out. This man crying, sniffling. They hugged it. This is how I knew I won’t gonna f\u2014k with that man,”\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Johnson was a damn good basketball player who contended for the Sixth Man of the Year award during the 2016-17 season.\u00a0Later in his career, he served as a veteran presence\u00a0inside\u00a0teams’ locker rooms,\u00a0tasked with helping mentor\u00a0young players.\u00a0Plus, it always helped to have someone on your side that other players respected enough to leave alone during a scrum.<\/p>\n

Related: Cavaliers sharpshooter shares a shocking story of getting mugged in the middle of Nicaragua: “There was blood everywhere”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Mar 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many players claim to be “tough guys” in the NBA. However, with league rules in place functioning as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1179,7,2545,247,200,1676,7877,3064,189,6,18740,83195,203,1674],"class_list":["post-637276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-bam-adebayo","tag-basketball","tag-blake-griffin","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-draymond-green","tag-dwight-howard","tag-james-johnson","tag-kevin-garnett","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-physical-altercations","tag-physical-presence","tag-the-nba","tag-tim-duncan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116167037220551918","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}