Brooklyn Nets star Blake Griffin is years removed from his glory days in Los Angeles.
As the shining member of the “Lob City” Clippers, Griffin made 5 All-Star appearances while averaging over 21 points per game. During his prime, he was renowned for his amazing dunking ability, which had him pegged as one of the highest-fliers in basketball.
But since his departure from the Clippers, Griffin hasn’t been the same, and fans have noticed a pretty steep decline in the frequency of his dunks, which folks quickly attributed to him either being washed or not fully committed to giving his maximum effort for the Pistons.
Whatever the case, it wasn’t a good stretch for Blake, and the community was pretty surprised when he started looking like his old self in Brooklyn.
And, according to the power forward himself, those stories about his struggles with the Pistons really struck a nerve…
“It bothered me a little bit,” Griffin said, via Bleacher Report. “Because the stat was he hasn’t dunked in four-hundred-something days, sure.
“Everyone’s like ‘he hasn’t dunked in over a year,’ I’m like I haven’t played in over a year,” he added. “But I played those 19 games with the Pistons and didn’t dunk. That just pissed me off because you guys know the stat, you’re just choosing to be like ‘let’s do days instead of games.’”
So, according to Griff, the media was being dishonest about his tenure in Detroit, leading many Detroit fans to hold resentment over him for his time there.
Of course, Griffin has already sent a message to those fans, challenging their notion that he turned their back on them.
“The 2018-19 season… I was an All-Star, All-NBA, I dunked a few times, played in the playoffs injured, but yeah… I’d hate me too Detroit.”
Whatever feelings may be had about Griffin in Detroit, that chapter of his career is over now, and it didn’t bring much success.
With the Nets, the former All-Star has the chance to revive his career and play an important role with a true contender. Washed or not, he is obviously considered valuable enough for the franchise to re-sign.
Hopefully, this upcoming campaign will be the one where he proves all the doubters wrong.
