Top 5 Highlights and Lowlights from 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend ft. Jaylen Brown's failed Slam Dunk on Kai Cenat
The culmination of the 2024 NBA All-Star weekend happened on Sunday when the Eastern Conference stars beat their Western Conference counterparts. Behind Damian Lillard and Tyrese Haliburton, the East roared to a record-breaking night, thrashing their opponents 211-186.
“Dame Time” was named the MVP to cap off a superb weekend that also netted him a second straight 3-point shootout title.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wanted to make the event as exciting and entertaining as possible. The fans also wanted to enjoy as much as they could from the scheduled activities. Like most hyped-up events, there came the inevitable highlights and lowlights.
Lowlights of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend
#3 Team Pau losing to Team Detlef
Team Pau was the heavy favorite to win the Rising Stars Challenge of the 2024 NBA All-Star weekend. They were supposed to dispatch Team Detlef, which was composed of G League players. Schrempf’s team likely heard the disrespect and pulled off the biggest upset throughout the weekend.
It didn’t matter that Pau Gasol had Victor Wembanyama, Brandon Miller, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Brandin Podziemski and Jabari Smith Jr. Schrempf’s team went to a big lead and played just enough poise down the stretch to beat the highly-touted favorites.
Most fans wanted to see Wembanyama lift his first NBA hardware. Instead, they couldn’t even get to the championship round.
#2 Jaylen Brown’s dunk over Kai Cenat
Jaylen Brown created a buzz when he decided to join the 2024 NBA All-Star Slam Dunk contest. He was the first All-Star to participate in the event since 2017. Brown had the chance of becoming the first All-Star to win the contest since John Wall did it in 2014.
The Boston Celtics guard, after leading all entries with a 48.8 score in the first round, wanted to be more creative. He brought in teammate Jayson Tatum and the popular streamer Kai Cenat. Brown had the 5-foot-3 YouTube sensation sit on a chair while Tatum stood to the side ready to make the pass.
Jaylen Brown received the alley-oop from Tatum before flushing it through the rim. Almost comically, he covered his eyes when the dunk had been completed. He must have wanted to give tribute to Dee Brown, the former Celtic who won the contest in 1991. The former player triumphed by executing a no-look dunk, something that the current Boston star hilariously failed to accomplish.
Still, he moved on to the championship but his attempt was ridiculed on social media.
#1 Karl-Anthony Towns scored 50 points but the Western Conference All-Stars lost
Karl-Anthony Towns dropped a game-high 50 points in the 2024 NBA All-Star Game. Despite his effort, the Western Conference stars were nearly run off the court by the East. Town became just the fourth player in the history of the event to hit the half-century mark. He is also the only one to have lost the MVP despite having an explosive night.
Jayson Tatum had 55 points last year, Anthony Davis erupted for 52 in 2017 and Steph Curry had 50 in 2022. Each of them led their respective teams to the win and later earned All-Star Game MVPs. Towns couldn’t achieve the same feat and was trolled by Draymond Green who covered the game for TNT:
“This is like the old Minnesota [Timberwolves] days. KAT [Towns] got 40, they down 20”