Blake Griffin Just Silenced His Biggest Critics [WATCH]

Getty Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin during the 2013 NBA All-Star Game.

It’s hard to believe, but Blake Griffin’s last dunk came on December 6, 2019 — a startling stat when considering how many emphatic slams the former No. 1 overall pick has on his resume.

Finally, that changed Sunday as Griffin made his debut for the Brooklyn Nets.

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Griffin Dunks!

Four-hundred and seventy-one days later, the dunk drought ended.

Griffin, making his debut for his new team Sunday as the Nets played the Washington Wizards at Barclays Center, fulfilled a promise he had made to Brooklyn fans by slamming one through the hoop. The two-handed dunk — which prompted an eruption from the Barclays Center crowd — came with 11:59 left in the game and were Griffin’s first points as a Net.

Griffin raised his arms and smiled as he headed back down the court, in the direction of a Nets bench that also included several players with their arms raised in celebration.

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BlAkE gRiFfIn DoEsNt DuNk AnYmOrE

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Griffin played 14 minutes in his Nets debut and had two points (on 1-of-2 shooting), two rebounds and a block. The Nets were plus-12 when he was on the floor, the highest plus-minus ratio of any Brooklyn player on Sunday night.

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This Meant a Lot to Griffin

In an interview earlier this week with ESPN’s Malika Andrews, Griffin said he promised he still could dunk. On the Thursday edition of the Pardon My Take podcast with Barstool Sports’ PFT and Dan “Big Cat” Katz, the 32-year-old revealed a bit more about his feelings on his dunk drought — and the public’s reaction to it.

In broaching the topic on PMT, Big Cat got philosophical, asking Griffin if it’s better to have never dunked than to have dunked but lost all ability to do so in the future.

Griffin took a moment to grasp that concept before responding.

“Yeah, but beyond just that,” he said, “I think just everyone in general being like, ‘Oh, this guy hasn’t dunked,’ and none of those people can probably dunk (themselves), is probably worse. Because it’s people making fun of me for doing something they’ve never done.”

That’s about when Griffin was done beating around the bush.

“In all seriousness, let’s really talk about this,” Griffin said. “The whole thing is like, ‘Oh, Blake hasn’t dunked since 2019.’ My last game that I played (before this season) was in December of 2019. I didn’t play a basketball game for an entire year until this season started. So I’ve played like, what, 19 games this season? So it’s been 19 games. So when everybody’s like, ‘It’s been 400 and (whatever) days,’ it sounds crazy, but really it’s been like 19 games.”

Still, PFT wanted to stick to the exaggerated version: “Right, but how many days?” the Pardon My Take co-host asked Griffin.

Griffin, under his breath, responded without hesitation: “It’s (over) 400.”

Both PMT hosts laughed.

“Yeah, so, I got to dunk, man,” Griffin said.

And now he has.