Blake Griffin Says NBA Forced Him To Jump Over Kia Optima At 2011 Slam Dunk Contest

As you may recall, Los Angeles Clippers power forward Blake Griffin left the masses awestruck during the 2011 NBA Slam Dunk Contest by leaping over a Kia Optima (and teammate Baron Davis) for a monstrous dunk.

During a recent podcast interview, Griffin opined that the moment could have been far more exciting had the league allowed him to execute his own idea.

“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.”

Griffin added:

“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.”

There’s always next year, Blake.