Aaron Gordon becomes a two-time Slam Dunk Contest runner-up, but people believe that this year, he has been robbed. The Orlando Magic forward performed spectacular dunks during the NBA All-star weekend's Slam Dunk contest, but fell short of winning against Miami Heat's Derrick Jones Jr., Saturday.
During the last round of the contest, Gordon needed to score 49 or better to take home the trophy to defeat Jones' 48. Thus, Gordon brought out his big surprise and it was 7 ft and 5 inches tall. For his final act, Gordon, performed a dunk over NBA's tallest player Tacko Fall.
The dunk had audience going wild and thought that Gordon definitely had a runaway win. However, the judges thought otherwise. Two judges gave Gordon a 10 but the other three gave him 9 which only summed up to 47 points which is only one-point short of Jones'.
During the early rounds of the contest, Gordon scored 50 points in all of his previous dunks while Derrick Jones Jr., only received perfect scores during the final round which led to the tie-breaking dunk off.
In his winning dunk, Jones paid tribute to Michael Jordan's famous free-throw line dunk in 1988. Jones took flight a half-step closer to the goal than Jordan did yet he still went home with the trophy.
However, there was an outburst of reaction regarding the result as people think that Aaron Gordon deserved to win this time. Philadelphia 76's center Joel Embiid took it to Twitter to express his dismay saying that AG was once again robbed of a trophy, referring to his 2016 loss against Zach Lavine.
LeBron James, on the other hand, said that two trophies should have been awarded for both boys after putting on a spectacular show. He also added and called Jones and AG professional dunkers.
During the press conference after the show, Gordon said that he will not be participating in the slam dunk contest anymore after claiming that he feels he should have two trophies right now. He also said that his next goal is to try to win in the three-point contest.
It can be recalled that in 2016, Gordon lost the Slam Dunk contest in a spectacular dunk showdown against Zach Lavine where some critics say should also have ended in a tie.
On the other hand, Derrick Jones Jr. admitted that Gordon's last dunk was definitely difficult but said that he knew the judges won't give it a perfect score since Gordon clipped Tacko Falls head on the process. Jones who was celebrating his 23rd birthday was teary-eyed when he was presented with the trophy. He is also the first Heat player to win the award since Harold Miner won in 1993.
Whilst people are still debating on who really should have brought home the trophy, AG definitely is one of the best competitors that the dunk contest has seen since Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins in the 80s.
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