Celtics’ Jaylen Brown open to participating in NBA dunk contest again in 2025

Brown finished second in last weekend’s dunk contest

Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown looks at a glove that he wore during the slam dunk competition at the NBA basketball All-Star weekend, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024 in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

If the NBA will have him back, Jaylen Brown is willing to participate in the dunk contest again.

The Celtics star, who finished second to champion Mac McClung in his first career dunk contest last Saturday night, enjoyed the experience as the first All-Star since 2018 to participate in the event. Could he be back for the 2025 dunk contest in San Francisco?

“If they ask me, if nobody else cares to do it, then (expletive) it, I’ll do it again,” Brown told reporters in Chicago as the Celtics returned from the All-Star break on Thursday. “I don’t really care. People did like memes and stuff, but like I said, I think dunking is an art form. Obviously I think I got more in the tank than what I displayed. I feel like I could perform better.

“I had a great time, things didn’t go as planned for whatever reason, but I thought it was a great experience for me, I had fun and that’s the bottom line for me, so if they don’t have anybody to do it next year, the NBA asks me and they wanted to get the views back up, I think I can redeem myself for sure.”

While Brown made the finals, he wasn’t completely satisfied with his performance. In the first round, he tried to recreate former Celtics guard Dee Brown’s iconic slam from the 1991 contest, when he covered his eyes for a no-look dunk. But Brown – who put his own spin on it by jumping over social media influencer Kai Cenat while receiving an alley-oop from teammate Jayson Tatum – covered his eyes after finishing the dunk.

Brown still made the finals, where he paid tribute to the late Terrence Clarke with his first dunk before paying homage to music legend Michael Jackson – who was born in Indiana, the site of All-Star weekend – by wearing a white glove on his left hand and dunking with it. While Brown’s dunks weren’t spectacular or eye-popping, each of them had a deeper meaning behind it.

Brown acknowledged he could have performed better, but most of his goal of participating in the dunk contest was accomplished.

“I thought it was fun,” Brown told reporters. “I think obviously, it could have (gone) better or as planned. It didn’t, and that’s life sometimes. But I think I enjoyed the process. I thought it would be a fun experience. All-Star, doing it, bring back some hype to it and I think that was accomplished a little bit. The NBA mentioned that the ratings and views were higher, they were up, and it brought some more attention back to the art form of dunking. Obviously it didn’t go the way I expected it to go, but I think that’s OK. I had fun doing it. It’s one of the few times the spotlight is on you in your career. It’s like just you out there, and I think I took advantage of that.”