By: JP Hefft | Sports Editor
February 18, 2019
On Saturday February 15, the NBA held their annual dunk contest during All-Star Weekend in Chicago, Illinois. The participants were Dwight Howard from the Los Angeles Lakers, Pat Connaughton from the Milwaukee Bucks, Aaron Gordon from the Orlando Magic, and Derrick Jones Jr. from the Miami Heat. As usual, it was a very entertaining event, but it ended with a lot of controversy.
Aaron Gordon had already participated in an NBA Dunk Contest back in 2016, against Zach Lavine from the Chicago Bulls. They went back and forth, attempting to “out-dunk” the other, with Lavine finally taking the trophy from Gordon. Many people voiced their opinion on how Gordon was “robbed” from the trophy in 2016, but without Lavine in the contest this year, Gordon finally had his shot to win it.
After the initial rounds of dunks, Gordon and Jones Jr. made it to the finals. They had a similar battle to what Lavine and Gordon had done in 2016, with both dunkers receiving multiple perfect scores in a row. In Jones Jr.’s last dunk he was given a score of 48/50, and the entire stadium expected to crown Gordon the winner after such a great performance. Gordon’s last dunk was a spectacular two handed dunk over the tallest player in the NBA, Tacko Fall, standing at 7 ft 5 in.
The judges then gave Gordon a 47/50, making Jones Jr. the winner. The controversy lies with Dwayne Wade, one of the judges that gave Gordon a nine instead of a perfect score ten. Dwayne Wade is the only judge with any reason to give Jones Jr. the win because they were actually teammates before Wade retired in 2019.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Jones Jr. or Lavine because their dunks were equally entertaining and difficult,” said San Clemente High School senior JJ Peters.”I just think that Gordon deserved a less biased judges panel this year.”
“Gordon has had two Dunk Contest trophies stolen from him now,” said SCHS junior Ryan Lukes. “It’s a shame that he is doing so many impressive dunks but is not getting rewarded for it.” This is a common opinion throughout SCHS, thinking that both performances from Gordon in 2016 and 2020 should have ended in at least one Dunk Contest trophy for him.
Gordon came out to the media and said that he will no longer be doing the Dunk Contest for the rest of his career. He believes that he should have two trophies right now, and many people in the basketball world are in agreement with him.
Leave a Reply