Blake Griffin can’t help but laugh at Nets’ Darth Vader status

Authored by nypost.com and submitted by efranklin13
image for Blake Griffin can’t help but laugh at Nets’ Darth Vader status

Brooklyn’s latest addition of LaMarcus Aldridge isn’t just the rich getting richer. It’s a billionaire winning Powerball — and everybody else getting triggered.

The Nets signed Aldridge on Sunday, after they’d already inked Blake Griffin, and traded for James Harden, moves that have fans and pundits alike crying foul.

“It’s kind of funny to me, because for the last couple years all I’ve heard is how bad I am. You sign with this team and everybody’s like, ‘That’s not fair!’ ” Griffin said when asked by The Post about the strong reactions. “People say whatever they want. I don’t put a whole lot of value in other people’s opinions.”

They cared like they did when Kevin Durant joined the Splash Brothers or LeBron James joined to form Miami’s Big Three. When news of Aldridge’s signing broke Saturday, the Nets were painted as villains.

“I don’t even know what that means, villains, in the context of it,” coach Steve Nash said. “[A staffer] just told me that Blake’s comment this morning was, ‘Hold on, everyone told me I suck for the last two years, now everyone’s saying I’m the villain because I’m here.’ So a lot of it is just narratives and people love to talk hoops and barbershop and whatever it may be.”

The Nets have pushed back on that narrative of Grand Theft Title.

“It’s not like we did anything illegal. So I don’t know what we’re supposed to do, not try to add to our roster, and just sit pat?” Nash asked rhetorically. “That’s the idea of this league is to try to put together the best team you can; and that doesn’t guarantee you anything.”

Just like the Nets gave Griffin time to ramp back up, don’t expect to see the newly signed Aldridge take the court for a little while.

But when the seven-time All-Star shakes off that rust, Nash admits starting — and unseating DeAndre Jordan to do it — isn’t out of the question.

“We’ll see. He’s got to ramp up. He hasn’t played for a month, so got to get his conditioning and ramp up. So I’d say he probably won’t play for two, three, four games,” Nash said of Aldridge. “We’ll see whatever that is. Not too long. He needs some time to develop his conditioning and then we’ll get him out there.”

Freaky-sharkey on March 29th, 2021 at 17:30 UTC »

Drummond on a $28mil contract = horrific.

Drummond on the $800k contract the Lakers are paying him = literally every single team in the league would take him on that contract.

I don’t know why this is so difficult to understand. When grossly overpaid players decide to play for free they start looking good again.

SaiyajinGreninja on March 29th, 2021 at 17:11 UTC »

I mean to be fair you used to be a first option on a 30m contract now ur a 5th option on a vet minimum obviously there's a difference

iRockaflame on March 29th, 2021 at 17:02 UTC »

Once he dunked it became unfair