“That S**t Was Racist”: Anthony Edwards’ Dunk On Yuta Watanabe Brings Forth Intriguing Take From Theo Pinson

Anthony Edwards is one of the most exhilarating players to watch in the NBA, in large part due to his competitive personality and his high-flying game. His air time has always been reminiscent of Michael Jordan himself and in his relatively short time in the league, owing to his explosiveness, he’s racked up a pretty impressive collection of poster dunks in his career. His journey of posterising defenders started in his rookie year, interestingly, in a game against the Toronto Raptors.

The dunk on the Raptors’ Yuta Watanabe, which played a major role in making him popular, was also the defining moment in his debut campaign. Since then, Edwards has racked up quite a highlight reel. But as it goes with most firsts, it is always the most special.

This particular dunk was so special, in fact, that it is still talked about today. When his former Timberwolves teammate Jaylen Nowell made an appearance on the Run Your Race podcast, the crew had to discuss the dunk.

Host Theo Pinson spoke to Nowell and broke down the iconic dunk, with the former Maverick even jokingly claiming, “That sh*t was racist as f*ck boy. That sh*t was racist as HELL bruh!”

Of course, he could not have made it any clearer that this statement was in jest. However, Nowell mentioned how iconic the dunk was and added another joke into the discussion, “That’s probably why he’s not in the league anymore.”

Nowell was pointing out the fact that Watanabe announced his retirement from the NBA last year and will play out the rest of his career in Japan.

The dunk itself was a tremendous display of superhuman strength and athleticism. Edwards faked out Gary Trent Jr from the three-point line and then proceeded to jump high enough to have the upper half of his torso above Watanabe.

Here it is, the Anthony Edwards dunk as heard on Timberwolves Radio Network. pic.twitter.com/SfKq3Xw7L9

— Alan Horton (@WolvesRadio) February 20, 2021

But how does a player react after getting put on such an iconic poster? Well, according to the former Raptor himself, he has no regrets about it.

He claimed it was a point of professional pride for him and said, “I’d rather get dunked on than give up an easy two points by missing it.” “If I’m in the same situation in the future, I’ll jump to block every time,” he continued.

It’s always painful getting dunked on, but people often fail to consider the impact it has on the dunker. Edwards spoke about this in Netflix’s ‘Court of Gold’ documentary, claiming he actually doesn’t like dunking the ball because of how painful it is on his hands.

“I don’t like to dunk at all, to be honest,” he said. “Because it hurts. I like to dunk on people. I want the fans to just be like, ‘oh, f—, we couldn’t stop him tonight.’”

Anthony Edwards:

“I don't like to dunk at all, to be honest. Because it hurts. I like to dunk on people. I want the fans to just be like, 'oh, f—, we couldn't stop him tonight.'”

(via @netflix) pic.twitter.com/9zfADMnjjf

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) October 14, 2024

This seems pretty in line with what we know about Edwards’ mentality. He’s a fierce competitor, and it must be a point of pride for him if opposition fans feel like their team could simply not do anything to stop him on any given night, even if it physically hurts him.

Whatever he may think of dunking, one thing remains true for sure: As NBA fans, we don’t want him to stop dunking anytime soon. There’s almost nothing that can replicate the euphoric shock of seeing someone get put on a poster, and there is no player better at it than Anthony Edwards.