Clipper forward Blake Griffin has had some memorable dunks in his young NBA career, but he may have topped them all during his team’s matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder late Monday night.
With 8:52 remaining in the third quarter, Griffin, winner of last year’s NBA dunk contest, took a feed from point guard Chris Paul, elevated over the Thunder’s Kendrick Perkins, and threw down a nasty, rim-rattling one-handed jam.
Blake’s aerial display immediately sent the Staples Center crowd and the Twitter world into a frenzy, with other professional atheletes tweeting praises of Griffin’s highlight.
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald wrote:
“Blake Griffin just made one of the top dunks of the season. Maybe even his career. (hashtag) Beast.”
Tracy McGrady of the Atlanta Hawks weighed in with:
“yo, crazy crazy dunk by the dude Blake Griffin.”
In fact, the dunk was so emphatic, so dirty and so unheard of that LeBron James referred to it as the Dunk of the Year, acknowledging that Griffin’s jam topped an amazing thrown-down that James had accomplished just a day earlier.
“Dunk of the Year!! @blakegriffin just dunked on Kendrick Perkins so hard!! Wow!! I guess I’m #2 now. Move over #6,” James tweeted.
As for Kendrick Perkins, who was all over YouTube and twitter as the latest victim to be posterized by a Griffin slam, the OKC Thunder center handled the negative attention like a champ.
“It happens,” Perkins said. “A the end of the day if you’re a shot blocker, you’re going to get dunked on. It was a great play that he made. Obviously I wish I wasn’t in it, but it was a great play that he made.”
Griffin ended the game with 22 points and 7 boards as the Clippers cruised to a 112-100 victory and in the process snapped the Thunder’s four-game winning streak.
Check out Blake Griffin’s dunk over Kendrick Perkins below:
