Blake Griffin is 21 years old. He’s also 6 foot 10: no wonder he’s one of the fastest rising stars in the NBA. He featured in the NBA All-Stars game last night and earned another award to add to his collection in the founding years of his career.
During the NBA All-Star Weekend when, go figure, an exhibition of basketball events take place, the NBA Slam Dunk Contest is one of the coveted awards. The contest was first held in 1976, so it’s certainly seen its fair share of Dunking Dynamos. There used to be just an elite panel of judges, but nowadays fans also contribute vote via texting.
Well with a booming 68% of the votes Griffin took home the (Sprite?)
It went down like this: a silver Kia with tinted windows was rolled out onto the floor, with the hood of the car positioned in the paint. A choir was brought out at the other end of the court, and sang before the dunk was attempted. The head of Griffin’s teammate Baron Davis appeared out of the vehicle’s sunroof, and he was holding a basketball. Griffin got a running start, leaped into the air while clearing the car with ease, and caught a pass from Davis which he slammed home with two hands, bringing his team’s home-town, L.A.crowd to a fever pitch.
“It was actually my idea to use the car,” Griffin said. “When they first came to me with the dunk contest idea, they said there was no rules. I was like, ‘So I can jump over a car?’, kind of playing around. He was like, ‘Yeah.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I have to do it now.’ “
Not sure the choir was entirely necessary, but it all looked fairly remarkable to me. Then again it would to a 5 foot 11 writer whose only contact with a basketball this year was watching this video. Mind you, Atlanta Hawks’ Spud Webb won in 1986 and he was just 5 foot 7. There’s always hope.
Thanks Guy!
[Source: AOL]
Main image via totalprosports.com
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