Blake Griffin may have taken home the 2011 Dunk Contest, but the 27-year-old believes his performance could have been even better had the NBA granted his wishes.
"I wanted to jump over a convertible, but I wasn’t allowed to. It had to be a Kia Optima," Griffin said on Barstool Sports' Pardon My Take podcast. "I wanted to have Baron Davis and some of my teammates roll out in a convertible, and then just toss it straight up and jump over the whole thing, instead of just the hood."
The Kia Optima is the NBA's official vehicle, so it's understandable why the league was so adamant that Griffin use the four-door sedan in his dunk.
While the vehicle didn't prevent Griffin from winning the contest, the Los Angeles Clippers forward believes he would've faced less criticism from fans had the NBA allowed him to use a convertible instead.
"I don’t know if you guys have stood next to a Kia Optima, but it’s a pretty tall vehicle, and there’s no way I was going to make it over the entire thing, over Baron Davis in the sunroof. So I opted for the hood, and then everyone was pissed that I jumped over the hood, like, 'that was super easy,' so it was just a lose-lose situation for me."
- With h/t to SI.com
