Derrick Jones Jr. won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. But Lake Show Life has a problem here.
Many people who remember watching the 1988 Slam Dunk contest live or on television are a part of a long-standing debate over if Michael Jordan really won the showdown or did he get preferential treatment. It is widely believed the old Chicago Stadium crowd intimidated the judges into giving Jordan the edge in winning the infamous contest.
Come on NBA fans, you knew something funny happened if TNT did a special segment to hype up this slam dunk event. No one thought that this “screw job” could match what many believed happened back in 1988.
Derrick Jones Jr. came out the gate just like Zach LaVine did back in 2016 when he battled Aaron Gordon. Jones Jr. just used variations of between the leg dunks that seemed to be more challenging as the night went on.
https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1228881315153371137
Jones didn’t depend on theatrics or staged hype shows before he tried his dunks. He just raised the bar higher and higher and pushed Aaron Gordon to the limit. He basically had no choice because Gordon was collecting perfect 50 scores throughout the contest. More on him later. Much more.
The last dunk is where the issue comes up. His last dunk was a windmill dunk one foot in from the free-throw line. If you saw Jones’ face, he was not happy with the dunk. Plus people had seen that one before.
https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1228891686467723270
When LaVine beat Gordon out in 2016, most had an issue about Gordon losing but the argument couldn’t go far because Zach took off from the free-throw line, brought the ball between his legs and dunked the ball cleanly through. Nobody had ever seen that dunk before.
Look these dunks are hard and nobody is taking the man’s title away.
However, Aaron Gordon was on another planet.