LOS ANGELES — The Bay Area will have two of its native sons putting on a show at next week’s Slam Dunk Contest in Inglewood during All-Star weekend.
The NBA announced on Saturday morning that rookie Jase Richardson and second-year pro Keshad Johnson will join Jaxson Hayes and Carter Bryant in the competition next Saturday.
Richardson, the son of former Warrior Jason Richardson, will look to have the same kind of success as his pops in the hallowed event as a rookie for the Magic. The elder Richardson won back-to-back dunk contests in the early-2000s, but is best known for being a part of the iconic “We Believe” Warriors that upset the top-seeded Mavericks in the first round of the 2007 playoffs.
His son, who moved away from the Bay Area when he was a young child, has been in and out of the rotation after being selected No. 25 overall in June. Jase Richardson is averaging 5.1 points per game and has played in 36 of the team’s 50 games.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” Jason told the Bay Area News Group in July. “It’s still surreal seeing him out there.”
Joining Richardson in the contest is Miami Heat wing Johnson, an Oakland native and one of the best players to come out of the Bay Area scene in the past decade.
He earned All-Bay Area News Group honors as a senior at San Leandro High while leading the Pirates to the 2019 North Coast Section Division I playoff semifinals. He averaged 14.4 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.3 blocks, 1.9 steals per game in his final prep season.
Johnson was a part of the 2023 San Diego State team that reached the NCAA championship, and signed with the Heat as an undrafted free agent in 2024 after spending a year at Arizona.
In his second year in Miami, Johnson has yet to establish himself as a consistent presence in the rotation, averaging just 3.1 points while playing in only 21 games. This summer, he hoped that diversifying his game would lead to more playing time as a sophomore.
“I’ve been working on my jumper a lot,” Johnson told the Bay Area News Group, “And for other skills, how to screen and how to get off of screens faster, and passing and making the right reads.”
Neither Johnson nor Richardson have had much of a chance to show off their dunking prowess this season. Johnson has only nine jams per NBA shot tracking data, while Richardson has only four dunks this season.
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