Javonte Green may be a dunk machine, but don’t expect him to show off his chops in the All-Star Week slam-dunk competition.
The famously springy reserve wing has made a name for himself as an energy guy who can come in and transform the feel of the game with one of his high-flying, thunderous dunks, but isn’t sure what he does on the court would translate to the produced event that is the slam-dunk contest.
Green may be an outstanding athlete, but the format of the competition isn’t quite the same beast as what the Radcliffe product creates his signature flushes in naturally.
“I feel like I’m more of a game dunker,” he related (via the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach). “I feel like I could do OK in a dunk contest for sure, but all of my dunks I feel like come off instinct in games.”
Of course, he’d have to be invited to the competition in the first place to turn it down, but even if he was, he’d pass.
He’s been to one overseas, invited to the dunk contest in the Basketball Bundesliga All-Star Game while honing his craft overseas, and it did not go well, shaping his feelings on the NBA equivalent.
“I’m kind of scarred from that,” he explained. “The dunk I was trying to do I kept missing, so I did something different. But I was trying to do a 360 windmill. I had enough height, but I don’t know if the nerves got to me. I couldn’t put it down.”
What matters to the Virginian rim-bender is getting more playing time in games that count for the Celtics — and the chance to baptise opponents that comes with it.
“I just like to dunk off of instinct and on people,” he added.
