Warriors forward Jordan Bell’s off-the-backboard dunk against the Dallas Mavericks generated instant drama and intrigue in a game that had already devolved into garbage time.The play spoke to the then-22-year-old rookie’s confidence and demonstrated his elite athleticism.
It looked like this:
Warriors rookie Jordan Bell already throwing it off the backboard. ? pic.twitter.com/BRBdCM6DOS
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 24, 2017
The dunk shocked and angered Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, who seemingly found it to be unprofessional. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr later pulled Bell aside and looked to be advising him against doing a similar dunk in future games.
In a piece published Friday by Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck, Bell relived the dunk and explained his rationale for executing it. He cited Kerr’s request to “keep the intensity up.” But as the Warriors were up 25 points with just three minutes remaining in the game, Bell admitted that there were other reasons for dunking the way he did.
“You want to stand out as much as you can,” he said. “It’s still two points, but it will get your name out there more. It’ll get you more hype.”
Bell had already cracked the Warriors’ rotation and earned significant playing time, but the viral dunk did increase his national recognition.
Warriors forward Kevin Durant said he appreciated the dunk because it showed that Bell comfortable in his own skin and not afraid of failing to conform to the personality-devoid stereotype rookies are often told to emulate.
“That play stood out to me, because he had the guts to do it,” Durant says now. “Sometimes you get taught as a rookie to be such a robot, and he was out there just being him. So I loved that play.”
Apparently, Bell did the same thing in a game during his final season at Oregon. His college teammate Dillon Brooks, now playing with the Memphis Grizzlies, recalls that it was “way nastier” then the one with the Warriors. “It was the loudest I ever heard the gym go,” Brooks said. “That’s just JB’s personality. He likes to stretch the band a little bit.”
Kerr’s reaction in the moment was more muted, but he appreciated the play more over time.
“I really liked Jordan being like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m coming,’” Kerr said. “You need that in this league.”