Getty Brooklyn's Kevin Durant high-fives Blake Griffin during the second half against the Phoenix Suns at Barclays Center on April 25, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
When All-Star forward Blake Griffin reached a buyout agreement with the Detroit Pistons last season, he immediately became one of the hottest mid-season free agents on the market. Although Griffin’s stats had dipped tremendously since being traded to the Pistons, he was still an athletic forward with size and versatile defensive ability and would be a welcome addition to any championship contender.
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Blake Griffin Reveals Kevin Durant’s NSFW Pitch to Him
Ultimately Griffin ended up signing with the Brooklyn Nets for the rest of the season and will be back with the team this season. Griffin had previously acknowledged Nets’ star Kevin Durant as one of the Nets’ biggest recruiters of him last season. But he says KD did not have any long-drawn-out pitch for him to come to Brooklyn. Durant’s message to Griffin was short sweet and to the point.
“Somebody asked me, ‘Who recruited me the hardest?’ I was just like ‘Kevin’. It wasn’t like he was flying to my house. It wasn’t that type of recruitment,” Griffin said during a recent appearance on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger.”
“It was just like, ‘Hey, come bring you’re a** to Brooklyn. Let’s try to make a run at this thing.’ When a player of his caliber says something like that, it means something for sure.”
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Blake Griffin Ready to Step up in Kyrie’s Absence
During his time in Detroit, Griffin looked as if he had lost a step of athleticism. He was just a shell of the explosive forward fans were used to seeing during his days in ‘Lob City’ with the Los Angeles Clippers. But in his brief time with Brooklyn last year, Griffin was able to find new life in his career. He shot 49.2% from the field and 38.3% from the three-point line in 26 games with the Nets last year.
Now with the absence of Nets’ star Kyrie Irving Griffin’s role could expand exponentially, especially on the offensive end. Though the All-Star forward understands that he and others’ roles will increase, Griffin says the key to adjusting is to never put full responsibility on yourself.
“I think everybody’s role changes slightly, but you don’t ever put anything on yourself. Even the best players can’t do it by themselves. So, we’ve got to do it collectively as a team,” Griffin told reporters following a recent practice per “Newsday.”
“We’ve got to do that by paying attention to our spacing, our pace, and guys have got to hit shots. Kevin is Kevin and James is James and Joe is Joe. But the guys who support them, me included, we have to just do our job and do it better. But it’s not about really putting it on yourself.”
The Nets expected to be fully staffed for their season opener against the Milwaukee Bucks but that will not happen in the absence of Kyrie. Still, Brooklyn will have to go out and contend with the players that they have available to them. Though missing Irving is a big blow to the Nets they still have enough pieces around them to contend for this year’s title. The road to the franchise’s first championship begins against the Bucks on October 19!
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