Blake Griffin turns 29: 5 Greatest Dunks of his career so far

Everybody is not LeBron James.

That's the first thing that comes to mind when you sit down to think about the relatively swift decline of Blake Griffin's physical capabilities. He's no more the quick, agile, ferocious dunker that all of us saw through the first five years of his career. At the end of the 2015 season, many believed that Griffin had learned how to control his physical aggressive above-the-rim style of play to a more smarter low-key version.

While that might have been true, he just hasn't gotten the chance to establish himself and return to any kind of rhythm as injuries keep derailing his career. Over the past three years (including this season), he's never been able to play more than 61 games in the regular season. He's slated to cross that threshold this season but it becomes irrelevant to a certain extent as he is now in a completely different situation with the Detroit Pistons.

Having said that, that's enough of the harsh realities. Let's take a trip down memory lane and take a look back at his five greatest dunks so far as the 5-time All-Star turns 29:

#5 Sequence of 3 dunks vs. Aron Baynes

Not once, not twice but Griffin posterized Aron Baynes thrice in the same game. And worse, it was a Playoff game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Now, there's no denying the insane athletic ability required from Griffin to execute these moves but Baynes wasn't exactly a reputed dependable rotation player back then let alone a capable shot-blocker or defender. In fact, the 2014-15 season was the first year, Baynes career really took off from a minutes standpoint.

That's the sole reason why these dunks (the last dunk to be more particular) are at #5 on this list. Otherwise, throwing down three dunks, all in different fashion - spin move then dunk, drive then dunk, roll then dunk - is stunning and amazing entertainment.

#4 Pau Gasol joins Griffin's poster

Again, because these dunks happened in the same game and the fact that they were both equally vicious, it was difficult to not put both on the list. To start off the game, Griffin hovers over the rim for a monstrous putback dunk, jumping over Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol in the process.

If that wasn't enough, in the third quarter, he posterized Gasol once again, this time off a pick-and-roll sequence. At least in the first one, Gasol was unaware of the approaching Griffin but in the second dunk, as the rotation man, he was aware but there was nothing he could do about it.

It's quite easy to look at the dunks and maybe rank them at No. 1 but once again the degree of difficulty is a huge factor in it being ranked at #4. Gasol wasn't exactly a leaper and shot-blocker at this time (2011-12 season) and Griffin was arguably at the peak of his powers.

#3 Posterizing the BLOCK MACHINE - Serge Ibaka

For a period of two years (2011-13), Serge Ibaka was really the block machine of the league. Both seasons he led the league in blocks - 3.7 (2011-12) and 3.0 (2012-13) respectively - and more importantly he had impressive mobility for his height and wingspan.

I don't think more needs to be said about how difficult this dunk is. Then, there's the Griffin part of the play that made this dunk so amazing to watch - the extension of his hand, the hang time, and then the clocking of his hand once he had dunked it.

It's an underrated dunk given the degree of difficulty and the person that was challenging Griffin but #3 is really as high as it can be.

#2 The Posterizing Dunk with the insane vertical

The extension. The vertical. It just looks superhuman and remember, this was only his rookie season. It was just the 14th NBA game of Griffin's career.

Timofey Mozgov is a more than capable center height wise (7'1"), he's definitely no pushover, so there is a huge physical element Griffin needed to overcome and yet he made it seem effortless. In fact, if you look at the video carefully, it appears as if Griffin midway through the dunk palms Mozgov's head and uses the physical contact to jump even higher.

This game was just a short yet explosive preview of what Griffin was going to do all through rookie season. He was a unanimous selection for the Rookie of the Year award, a season that had him dunk 214 times.

#1 EVERYBODY KNOWS

If every avid basketball fan was asked to make their own "5 Greatest Dunks by Blake Griffin" list, the other four might differ but No. 1 on all of them would be this one over Kendrick Perkins. And it's not even close.

Perkins not much a leaper as well but there is a brute force and physical presence about him, which makes this dunk even greater. Similar to the previous one, Griffin seems to elevate and extend even more after the physical contact.

Like a majority of his buckets with the Clippers, Griffin rolled to the basket after screening for Chris Paul. He then caught the bounce back and the rest is history. There's only so much you can describe the dunk. Keep watching the video and remember the shattering stuff Griffin could do.