When Blake Griffin visualized his 2017-18 season, he didn’t foresee being shipped out of Los Angeles just six months after signing a long-term deal with the franchise he helped lead from laughingstock to Lob City. After being treated to a pitch-meeting preview of his jersey ascending to the Staples Center rafters, Griffin began the season motivated to lead a Clippers roster that seemed well-suited to complement his evolving game. He ended it in Detroit and out of the NBA playoffs for the first time since his rookie year.

While this summer began early for Griffin, his frontcourt pairing with double-double machine Andre Drummond has basketball fans in Detroit feeling optimistic for the first time in years. As he looks forward to his ninth season, we caught up with Griffin to learn about how his diet has evolved over of his career—and why a five-time NBA All-Star decided to never touch a microwave again.

GQ: How did you settle on the right diet? Is it a trial-and-error process?

Blake Griffin: The biggest thing I’ve learned after trying different types of diets, and doing sensitivity testing, and even having blood work done is to give yourself variety. Earlier in my career, a sensitivity test might tell me that I couldn't eat something, so I would eat other things. Then the next year, it would come back that my system is sensitive to those things.

I've found the body responds better to variety. If you eat the same foods over and over again—like, grilled chicken, brown rice, and broccoli everyday—the body isn’t going to keep breaking it down the same. For me, it’s been about finding different ways to be creative with my meals. So if I’m doing chicken for lunch, I’m doing salmon for pre-game. I’m constantly mixing it up.

You’ve worked your way back from a few injuries throughout your career. When you’ve been limited physically, have you made any specific changes to your diet during those times?

It’s tougher to maintain your fitness when you’re rehabbing, so I am very conscious of what I eat as I make my way back on the court. I avoid foods that cause inflammation, and I stay away from the sweets. Diet is so important to making sure your body comes back at 100 percent.

It doesn’t sound like you’re as strict as you were earlier in your career.

I think I’ve relaxed a little bit. One year—I think it was either the 2011-12 season or 2012-13 season—I was so strict with my diet that I hit a wall in March. I just got so tired of it. Now, on an off day, if I want to go and get some pancakes or something, I’ll do it. Finding different places to give myself a break has helped me maintain throughout the season, so I don’t get worn out.

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What are some things you tend to stay away from during the year?

I avoid gluten and dairy. Normally, I would never be sitting here eating chicken wings before a game, but this is our last game, and I’m out. [Ed. note: Blake missed the season's final eight games with an ankle injury, and the Pistons had been eliminated from playoff contention when this interview took place.] I also make sure that everything I’m eating is clean and organic, and that I'm not eating any bad protein, or anything like that.

Chicken wings aside, what does your routine look like throughout the season?

I stopped doing eggs.

Completely?

Not completely, but I used to do eggs every morning. Now, I probably eat them once a week. Or I’ll do one egg on top of a sweet potato hash bowl my chef makes. It’s sweet potato, chicken, and vegetables. Something like that, instead of an omelet.

I’ll do that in the morning with yogurt, some fruit, gluten-free homemade granola, and a green juice. Lunch is around 12:30. It’s normally, like, salmon and quinoa or brown rice. My pre-game meal at the arena is the opposite. If I ate salmon for lunch, then I’ll do chicken before the game, with a complex carb like quinoa, brown rice, or couscous.

My chef makes this homemade protein energy bar that I’ll have an hour before the game, and then I’ll have mixed fruit about 30 minutes before the game. I’ll do the same thing at halftime.

Since you aren't as strict now as you were in years past, what are some favorite cheat meals of yours?

It will normally be something from a restaurant I really like. Since I came to Detroit in the middle of the season, I don’t have one there yet, but in L.A., during the summer, this place called R+D Kitchen has a chicken sandwich I really like. Craig’s in Beverly Hills makes a good chicken parm. I don’t do places like that too often, but when I want to enjoy myself, those are places I usually go.

Is it true that you avoid microwaving your food?

I stay away from the microwave in general. I’ve stayed away from microwaves for about three years now. If I’m in a serious bind? It would have to be serious, but I try to avoid them, period.

What led to that decision?

I just read a bunch of information. There are even countries that have actually banned microwaves. [Ed. note: To be clear, this does not appear to be accurate.] Also, the whole idea to me, in general, makes no sense—that I can put something cold in there and heat it up within seconds, but there’s no actual heat involved? It just doesn’t seem like the right way to go about treating your food.

Has removing microwaving been a huge change, especially when you might have food you’re bringing from the plane to the team hotel?

On the road, room service is always a good option, and now it’s so much easier because of things like Postmates and UberEats. I do those a lot just to get a meal I really want. Not microwaving my food hasn’t really affected my life like you would think, except that I maybe wait a little bit longer to eat. And you can still use a toaster oven instead of a microwave. The toaster oven is very underrated.

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