Jaylen Brown couldn’t even dribble left without turning the ball over against children
One of Indiana’s busiest players at the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend was Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown.
Brown represented the Eastern Conference in the highest-scoring NBA All-Star Game ever. The 27-year-old also participated in the NBA’s dunk contest. While the judges seemingly favored Brown’s efforts more than the fans did, he ultimately lost to Mac McMclung, the defending champion.
During the contest, Brown even poked fun at the critics who say he cannot dribble with his left hand by wearing a glove on his left hand for one of his dunks. After a busy weekend, Brown deserved some relaxation. It seems he got some in Puerto Rico.
Jaylen Brown spending his All-Star break hooping with kids in Puerto Rico
(via @jorgefloza)pic.twitter.com/uIsoefZxdz
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 20, 2024
While he was out there, however, Brown also spent some time hooping with a group of adorable children.
As noted on Reddit, however, even these kids were able to force a turnover against Brown when he tried to dribble with his left hand.
This is a long-standing criticism of Brown’s game that Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green pointed out after they played each other during the 2022 NBA Finals. Here is more from Jared Weiss (via The Athletic):
“Green has said publicly that the Warriors’ game plan was to send Brown left and go at the ball, which worked well even if Brown was the Celtics’ best player in that series. […] After making strides last regular season, Brown had 66 turnovers in the 2023 playoffs, with eight of those coming in the Game 7 loss to Miami. Five of those TOs that night were dribble turnovers with his left hand.”
Compared to the competitive nature of playing against teams in the playoffs like the Warriors or the Heat, it is very different going against a bunch of kids in a fun pick-up game.
But it was still funny to see Brown lose his dribble when so many people are so quick to use that as criticism of his on-court development.