Aaron Gordon sung about losing the dunk contest.
Now, he’s talking about it.
Gordon on Instagram with Dwyane Wade, whose controversial judging helped hand the victory to Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr.:
It depends how you look at it.
Was Gordon’s final-round dunk (dunking over 7-foot-5 Tacko Fall) better than Jones’ final-round dunk? Yes.
But Jones dunked better throughout the contest. He should’ve clinched victory sooner.
Wade denied violating a judges’ agreement to keep the dunk contest tied, instead casting blame toward Scottie Pippen. In fact, Wade said he wanted the contest to remain tied.
Though Wade was backward in his explanation – that Gordon performed better throughout and Jones’ last dunk was better – Wade got to an important point: The dunk-contest format is broke. Five judges (maybe individually, maybe conspiring) scoring each dunk on a 6-10 scale is a poor way to do it.
My suggestion: The dunks should be rated relative to each other, not on isolated voting. It’s too common for a judge to give a 10 then see an even better dunk. At that point, the scale no longer works.
