Thad Young's Raptors teammates couldn't believe his monster slam dunk

Mar 31 2022, 2:39 pm

With the Toronto Raptors holding onto a big fourth-quarter lead over the Minnesota Timberwolves, forward Thad Young threw down a monster slam dunk on Wednesday night.

Big dunks happen every night in the NBA, but the high-flying antics are often something associated with — to put this delicately — more youthful players.

Young, acquired by the Raptors from San Antonio on trade deadline day in exchange for Goran Dragic, is just one of 46 players in the league, currently 33 or older. In most professions, he’d barely be a decade into the workforce. In the NBA, well, he’s one of the league’s elder statesmen, having played 1,079 career games across 15 seasons.

While 37-year-old LeBron James throwing down highlight reel dunks might be commonplace, it’s not exactly a common experience for Young — it was just his seventh dunk in 46 games this season.

With the Raptors crowd rising to their feet for the dunk, Young’s teammates on the bench also looked stunned by the slam.

 

Some of the Raptors were a bit more measured in their reaction.

“His legs were feeling super good,” Gary Trent Jr. said.

“They were calling him Thad Young Legs,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse joked about the dunk.

But Nurse wasn’t the only one making puns.

“That’s his name, right? Thad Young! He’s YOUNG!” Pascal Siakam said. “That boy was up there. I was trying to get the ball from him, and he just said, ‘screw Pascal. I’m gonna jump off the trampoline and dunk this thing. It was impressive. I don’t think even I can jump that high. Shoutout Thad; I didn’t know he had that in him.”

Young finished the night with 10 points, four rebounds and two assists in 17 minutes of action.

With the 125-102 win, the Raptors moved two spots ahead of Cleveland and maintained the sixth-place spot in the Eastern Conference that would help them avoid the daunting play-in round. Toronto returns to action tomorrow night when they visit the Orlando Magic.

Adam LaskarisAdam Laskaris

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