Everyone knows what a stimulus check is, but no one knows why ESPN’s Mark Jones referenced it after a thunderous dunk by Damian Lillard.
Wednesday night, Lillard returned to Portland for the first time as a visiting player after orchestrating a trade from the Trail Blazers to the Milwaukee Bucks prior to the season tipping off. Trailing by three late in the fourth quarter, Lillard drove past Deandre Ayton and quieted the crowd with a dunk that cut the lead to one.
But fans watching on ESPN at home didn’t even have time to enjoy the dunk because they were left to figure out what play-by-play voice Mark Jones was talking about during his call of the slam.
“HE HIT THAT LIKE A STIMULUS CHECK!” – Mark Jones on Damian Lillard’s dunk 🏀🎙️pic.twitter.com/Yt4K4CRlEA
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 1, 2024
“Dame rises up and punches it home,” Jones said. “He hit that like a stimulus check! Dame Lillard! Makes it a one-point game.”
Like a stimulus check? What does that even mean? Obviously, we know what a stimulus check is, everyone became well versed in the economic impact payment as they were handed out during the pandemic. But how do they relate to Lillard’s dunk? NBA fans weren’t sure.
Dame dunked and the announcer said “he hit that like a stimulus check!” Somebody translate for me…
— Sydney Colson (@SydJColson) February 1, 2024
This man must be stopped https://t.co/RVA60EPtIn pic.twitter.com/TyZ0GqPxWt
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) February 1, 2024
“He hit that like a stimulus check”
????😭😭😭
— 🥤 (@34for2) February 1, 2024
Lol how does he come up with these sayings?! https://t.co/GD37n4copp
— 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧’ 𝐍𝐁𝐀 (@_Talkin_NBA) February 1, 2024
Did Mark Jones even know how stimulus checks related to Lillard’s dunk. Maybe because it was an uncontested dunk? Easy points, easy money? You could probably make a case for a stimulus check reference if it was an assist and the year was 2021. Something like, ‘Dame’s distributing the ball like it’s a stimulus check…’ But we’re reaching here.
For whatever reason, Jones had stimulus checks on the mind and seemed hellbent on working it into the game if the situation ever arose. It didn’t, and he still made the reference.
[ESPN]