After years of almost starless NBA dunk contests, Saturday night’s event finally crowned an All-Star.
The only problem? TNT missed Jaylen Brown’s first dunk as the Boston Celtics forward paid tribute to dunk contest legend Dominique Wilkins.
Preoccupied with showcasing some of the features of the new LED courts at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the station was unable to broadcast Brown’s dunk in its entirety and had to rely on replays. . The show aired a short skit with Brown and Wilkins lookalikes. He was wearing Wilkins’ old Hawks jersey.
Brown then recreated Wilkins’ windmill dunk from the 1985 contest.
The dunk received an average of 49.2 points from the contest’s five judges, including a perfect score of 50 from Wilkins himself, who won the 1985 and 1990 dunk contest.
The dunk was enough to propel Brown to second place behind Orlando’s Mac McClung, but Brown also missed out on another former dunk champion, Dee, who famously dunked with his eyes covered in 1991. -Clumsy attempt to imitate Brown drew jeers.
On Saturday, Brown didn’t cover his eyes until he hit the ground, making it a tough night for the Eastern Conference All-Star and for TNT.
