Jaylen Brown became the first player of All-Star caliber to participate in the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk contest in a long time. He dunked over a seated Kai Cenat, who is only 5 feet 3 inches tall. This brought some star power to the Dunk contest, which had been lacking in recent years. However, one of Brown’s dunks received negative reactions from the crowd.
During his dunk, Brown enlisted the help of streamer and teammate . Tatum stood with the ball, ready to toss it up for Brown to leap and dunk. Streamer Cenat was seated below, capturing the dunk on his phone. Brown sprinted down the lane and successfully dunked over Cenat. After landing, Brown covered his eyes with his left arm, which resulted in boos from the crowd.
Brown’s gesture of covering his eyes was a tribute to ‘s dunk in 1991. However, fans booed him for doing it after the dunk, while Dee Brown covered his eyes while in mid-air, slamming the ball down on the basket. The crowd’s negative reaction to this dunk was evident.
Even though Brown was expected to win by many fans, his choice of dunking over the much shorter Cenat did not sit well with the audience. The boos grew louder when he was awarded enough points to advance to the finals.
For basketball fans, having an All-Star caliber player in the Slam Dunk contest was a welcome change. In recent years, the contest has mainly featured rookies and role players. Therefore, fans were excited to see Jaylen Brown compete for the title. However, his underwhelming dunks disappointed fans worldwide.
The dunk over Kai Cenat received criticism from fans watching from home as well. They joined the arena crowd in expressing their disappointment through social media trolls. Some of their reactions can be seen below:
– “They’re ready to throw tomatoes at Jaylen Brown”
– “Dude covered his eyes after he already dunked and landed”
– “Yoo i cant get over this Jaylen Brown dunk pic like i havent laughed like this in a while this shit had my stomach hurting”
– “crowd booing after Jaylen Brown dunks over a 5’3 Kai Cenat SITTING DOWN”
– “Did he just rattle in a dunk over a seated 5-footer. I take it back I don’t want superstars in the dunk contest.”
– “And had the nerve to dab after that. We left dabbing in 2019.”
– “How did we go from Aaron Gordon dunking over Tacko Fall to Jaylen Brown dunking over a 4 foot guy sitting on a chair”
– “I’m on the floor crying”
While Jaylen Brown may be satisfied with his performance, the fans did not appreciate it at all. In the future, the league should consider tryouts before selecting participants for the Slam Dunk contest. After all, the goal is to provide the fans with an entertaining show.
According to the Source firstsportz.com