IT WAS the 1991 NBA All-Star Weekend Dunk Contest.
He might never even have fathomed it at that time, but Decovan “Dee” Brown’s winning dunk started a chain of events that spurned a viral phenomena 25 years later.
Announcers called it “the Blind Dunk” or the “No Look Dunk” and Brown certainly didn’t care how it was called as long as he was able to jam his coup de grace.
And after more than two decades, his trademark throw-down has now invaded pop-culture, known as the Dab.
“It was the first time I ever did that dunk, I didn’t practice it and I just hoped I would make it,” Brown told scribes during the Gatorade NBA Fit Week.
“Now it’s become so popular (Dab) and (at first) I had no clue what it was until my children showed it to me,” added the NBA great, who played for the Celtics from 1990-1998 before retiring in 2002 after 12 seasons in the NBA.
Now people of all sorts are doing it, from athletes to rappers and celebrities. It’s everywhere on social media and “The Dab Father” can’t help but feel a sense of pride everytime people do the move.
“Twenty-five years later, people can still remember that dunk and what I did. It’s an iconic thing and it makes you really proud that you did something people still talk about,” he said.
Although he considers the dunk he did was pure “luck,” he stressed to some 25 elite college basketball players during the 2016 NBA Gatorade Training Center that they need not rely their games to fate.
“You always have to make yourself better and always do things out of the box, challenge yourself because once you do that, you find yourself getting better,” he said.
Brown is in town with Phoenix Suns guard Brandon Knight tipping-off the NBA Training Center as part of the NBA FIT Week at the Hoops Center in Mandaluyong.
