The 6-foot-10 Griffin was coming off a spectacular sophomore season as he led the Sooners in scoring and rebounding, averaging 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds in 35 games. He also had a team-best 41 blocked shots and finished third on the squad with 80 assists, while shooting 65.4 percent from the field.

Griffin established an Oklahoma record with 25 double-doubles during the regular season and set a Big 12 mark with 13 games of at least 20 points and 15 rebounds.

The move for the Clippers figures to help them in an area where they've had plenty of talent, but that hasn't transferred to making the postseason. In fact, the Clippers have won just one playoff series since moving to Los Angeles in 1984 and recorded an minus-8.75 average point differential per game last season, worst in the league.

"I'm not worried about what's happened in the past," said Griffin. "I'm only looking forward to the future. We're not going to think about what's happened in seasons past. I'm just excited about the opportunity to make the best out of whatever situation that I'm put in."

Griffin is the first player in Oklahoma history to be No. 1 overall. The late Wayman Tisdale was selected by Indiana with the second pick in the '85 draft.

It was also the third No. 1 pick in Clippers history, joining Danny Manning (1988) and Michael Olowokandi (1998).