There were some fans of the Detroit Pistons who were ready to boo Blake Griffin upon his return to Little Caesar’s Arena.
This seemed silly to me, as Blake didn’t do wrong by Detroit, played hard when he was healthy and eventually accepted a buyout that actually saved the Pistons some money.
We wrote nice things about him, and the Pistons gave him a heart-warming video tribute last night in his first game back.
Forget everything nice I said, it’s time to boo!
Griffin flopped his way out of any goodwill he had from Pistons’ fans after his theatrics got fan-favorite Isaiah Stewart ejected from the game when the rookie grazed Griffin’s giant ginger head with his mighty elbow.
Coming after Beef Stew? This is a heel turn if I’ve ever seen one.
But that wasn’t all.
Detroit Pistons: How is Blake Griffin suddenly playing well?
I am not one of those fans who thinks that Blake is back to peak form just because he dunked in his first game with the Nets after not having one all season for the Pistons.
But after last night I am starting to wonder if the tin-foil hat people were right all along. Griffin scored 17 points in 20 minutes, looked halfway engaged on defense and knocked down both of his 3-point shots.
The alley-oop dunk was just a knife to the gut.
Where was this a few weeks ago?
Ok, so he still wasn’t great but I am going to stick with the conspiracy theory that Griffin dogged his way out of Detroit, saving himself for more important games.
But that’s not all!
Detroit Pistons: Griffin’s flopping led to Stewart’s ejection
Isaiah Stewart has been climbing the rookie ranks and is now leading all rookies in rebounding and blocked shots.
But it is his hustle and physical play that has endeared him to Pistons’ fans, and that was on display last night as he was putting it to Griffin and knocking him all over the place.
It was pretty fun to watch actually, as the rookie manhandled Griffin a few times under the rim, and things eventually got chippy.
Beef Stew delivered a light elbow to Griffin’s head which sent Griffin flailing like he had just been gunned down by a Black Hawk helicopter.
Look, we all know Griffin is a flopper and we ignored it when he was doing it for the Pistons, but to use his evil powers against Isaiah Stewart was just too much. The rookie was unjustly ejected even though Griffin was also hit with a technical himself.
The worst part is that he did it with that smirk on his face, ugh.
Blake Griffin is no longer one of us, it is clear, and he will now have a big target on his back wherever he ends up in the future.