Jaylen Brown blames NBA's 'slippery' LED courts for sabotaging his NBA All-Star Dunk Contest plans: "I can live with those results"
This year's iteration of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest held plenty of promise, as fans were eager to see Jaylen Brown compete. Fans had been pining for an All-Star to take part in the dunk contest and Brown is the first to do so since 2018 when Victor Oladipo was selected to the All-Star team and participated in the dunk contest.
That anticipation turned into disappointment for the fans, as Brown gave a somewhat lackluster performance on the day of the competition. He did finish second behind Mac McClung, who won his second Dunk Contest in as many years but overall, the contest did not live up to the hype.
However, according to Jaylen Brown, a part of why he was not able to perform to his full potential was because of the new LED courts.
"I feel like the court was a little slippery," Brown said. "So I wish I could've really done what I planned to do in my head or what I practiced to do, but I still think it came out, the message got sent and I had fun while I was doing it. I can live with those results."
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Jaylen Brown pays tribute to Terrence Clarke in Slam Dunk Contest
Jaylen Brown outscored rookies Jacob Toppin and Jaime Jacquez Jr. to advance to the final round of the dunk contest, where he faced off against defending champion Mac McClung.
In the second round, Brown kicked off by paying tribute to the late Terrence Clarke. Brown did so by first putting on Clarke's high school jersey, #5, from Brewster Academy.
While wearing the jersey, he performed a 360-degree, one-handed windmill smash. After the dunk, he created a heart shape with his hands and tapped his chest to pay the tribute.
The dunk received a score of 48 from judges Gary Payton and Fred Jones and three 49s from Mitch Richmond, Darnell Hillman, and Dominique Wilkins for a total of 48.6.
Terrence Clarke is a Boston native who died in 2021 due to a car accident in California. He had dreams of making it into the NBA and was working hard towards achieving that dream before his premature death.
The NBA honored Clarke by selecting him posthumously in the 2021 NBA Draft. Adam Silver delivered a statement about Clarke in front of his mother and brothers before officially announcing that he would be picked by the NBA. Clarke's family then joined Silver on stage and, like the other draftees, received NBA hats.