The Warriors will be pretty well represented at NBA All-Star Weekend on Feb. 19-20 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
A few days after Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins were named All-Star starters, The Athletic's Shams Charania reported, citing sources, that Warriors guard/forward Juan Toscano-Anderson will participate in the Slam Dunk contest the night prior to the All-Star Game.
On the latest episode of The Draymond Green Show, Draymond revealed that he was the one encouraging JTA to participate in the contest after watching the Oakland native throw down multiple highlight-reel dunks throughout his Warriors tenure.
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“Speaking of All-Star weekend, we have my boy Juan T, Juan Toscano-Anderson in the dunk contest," Green said. "It’s funny because a couple days ago he was like ‘yo, should I do the dunk contest?’ and I was like ‘they’ll let you do it?’ and he’s like ‘yeah I think I want to do it.’ And I was like ‘you would be a fool not to do it because the stage doesn’t get bigger than that.’ The only way that the stage gets bigger than that is the NBA Finals and there is no guarantee you’ll ever play in the NBA Finals. Why not? Everybody’s watching All-Star weekend, everybody’s watching you.
“Even if you go bomb it, I remember seeing some guys bomb the dunk contest. No one speaks on it, no one cares. No one ever talks about the person who loses, they’re only going to talk about the person that wins and their dunks. Maybe you win. You need to come up with three or four great dunks. Maybe a guy misses a dunk and it doesn’t even take a hard dunk to win, you just don’t know so why not just put yourself on that stage?”
Toscano-Anderson wasn't the only Warriors teammate that Draymond was encouraging to participate. Wiggins, who will be playing in his first career All-Star Game, was among the Golden State players that Green believed should be participating, especially after his explosive dunk over former Minnesota Timberwolves teammate Karl-Anthony Towns.
“On the flip-side, we have Andrew Wiggins who jumps out of the gym who won’t do it," Green added. "I talked to him about it and kind of threw shade at him. Wiggs is an old man, (he says) ‘ahh nah Dray my body ain’t right … my body’s not right for that.’ I’m like Wiggs come on man I just watched you put your head above the top of the square a few weeks ago, come on man get in the dunk contest. No chance Wiggs is doing it."
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Draymond also encouraged Gary Payton II to participate, laying out a game plan for a high score if he can somehow incorporate his father, NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton.
“Gary Payton II, I talked to GP, like ‘GP why wouldn’t you do the dunk contest?’ And he’s like “ahh man I just got the bounce in my regular dunks.’ GP if you do something with (Gary Payton Sr.) that’s a (score of) 40 or 50, so there’s one 50 right there. If Sr. tosses you a lob off the glass or something, that’s a 50 right there. Maybe you do something with Steph Curry who is going to be there, that’s a 50 right there. Now you need to come up with two more dunks that get you the scores. Do it, GP! Of course, GP didn’t want to do it."
Draymond wasn't finished, he then turned to rookie Jonathan Kuminga, who has shown off his vertical prowess multiple times this season.
“And then I text [Jonathan] Kuminga like ‘yo, you’re a rookie why wouldn’t you do the dunk contest?’ Again, talking to him about the stage. He’s like ‘man, I don’t do fancy dunks, I can jump high but I don’t really have all the fancy dunks.’ And I’m like ‘do the dunk contest, you can get a dunk coach to walk you through some dunks you can do and you don’t even know you can do them.’”
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Although Draymond was unsuccessful in convincing three of his teammates to participate, he did get through to JTA, who will certainly put on a show.
“I hope those three guys listen to this episode because I am pissed off that they didn’t put themselves in that dunk contest," Green said jokingly. "We could have had four Dubs in there.”