‘Bad Intentions’ Help Celtics Star Jaylen Brown Gain Redemption

Jaylen Brown was not going to be embarrassed at the rim twice in less than one week.

Effectively the only blemish on Brown’s sensational season-opening performance at Madison Square Garden was a botched dunk. The Boston star had a clear path to the basket in the second overtime of Celtics-Knicks, but he threw it off the back of the rim despite no resistance from New York players.

Brown understandably was roasted by his teammates for the gaffe. So when he found himself in a similar situation Monday night, he knew what he had to do.

The 2021 All-Star provided an early “Dunk of the Year” candidate when he posterized Miles Bridges in the extra frame of Boston’s overtime road win over Charlotte. Brown understood a violent approach was the right one in that situation.

“I had to make up for the missed dunk in New York,” Brown told reporters, per MassLive. “So my teammates was teasing me a little bit. It was just a good play. Miles, obviously, is one of the better athletes in the league, so I knew that if I tried to lay it up, he was going to send it back to Boston. So I knew if was going up, I was going up with bad intentions.”

The dunk was the cherry on top of another great performance from Brown. The sixth-year pro notched 30 points and pulled down nine rebounds as Boston improved to .500 on the young season.