Grading each event from the NBA’s 2020 All-Star weekend in Chicago

AT&T Dunk Contest

Finally, the one event that every NBA fan looks forward to, the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest. Every year, all NBA fans have been looking for a dunk contest that can rival the infamous 2016 Dunk Contest. Four of the best high-flyers in the NBA take part in a contest that relies on their creativity to earn the respect and score from the judges. It’s always been the top-dog of All-Star events and has given relevancy to even the most unknown players such as last year’s winner, Hamidou Diallo.

The AT&T Dunk Contest is always the stuff of legend, it’s how players get their nicknames, it’s how players cement their legacies. I’m talking about Vince Carter, who had the greatest dunk contest performance of all-time back in 2000. I’m talking about Nate Robinson, the 5’9″ guard who has three slam-dunk contest titles under his belt.

This year’s lineup was quite enjoyable actually, although some fans were disappointed that young studs like Zion Williamson and Zach LaVine weren’t involved. Nonetheless, here’s the impressive lineup:

The inclusion of Dwight Howard is simply for nostalgia sake, who was trying to reminisce his 2009 Slam Dunk Contest, where he used the Superman gimmick. Pat Connaughton was a questionable entry but he’s known for record-shattering 44 inch vertical, so you know he was going to be airborne the whole time.

But the two drawing points were Derrick Jones Jr. and Aaron Gordon. Jones Jr. had been in the competition back in 2017, but is mostly known for his impressive in-game dunks. Gordon finally made his return to the dunk contest, after making a name for himself back in 2016 alongside Zach LaVine. Everyone knew that this dunk contest was going to be wild.

How did it go?

So if you haven’t been living under a rock for the past few days, you’d know that this dunk contest very controversial. You know it, I know it, Aaron Gordon was cheated out of a win.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, this year’s dunk contest was beyond amazing, in fact it has rivaled the past with its creativity. A lot of NBA fans are willing to put the Aaron Gordon controversy to admit that this Dunk Contest was so extravagant, extravagant enough to rival the 2016 Dunk Contest that I always reference.

It was so impressive and creative from the participants that almost every single dunk deserved a score of 50. Looking back at it, this dunk contest deserves every bit of love that it lacks and that one outlying issue of Aaron Gordon being cheated out of a win, doesn’t deserve to taint the enjoyability of this event.

We all know the results by now, Derrick Jones Jr. out dunked Aaron Gordon in a Dunk-Off. Jones Jr. deserved to win, but maybe not after some of the things Aaron Gordon achieved. The Dunk-Off was brilliant, both high-flyers put it all out and pulled all the stops to make sure they were seeing 50s all around. Whether it was under-the-legs or 360s, this contest pulled out everything. But the only issue was the result.

If you haven’t been aware by now, Aaron Gordon may have been cheated out of a win. The result alone frustrated and annoyed almost every single NBA fan under the sun. It blows my mind that Gordon scored a total of 497 out of 500 points overall in the contest, and still lost. His final dunk revolved around him leaping over a 7’5″ Tacko Fall, and although it wasn’t completely clean, he still dunked over the giant. That dunk earned him a mear 47 out of 50, earning three 9/10 scores by Dwyane Wade, Chadwick Boseman and Scottie Pippen. The whole wild ending, was a subject of fan theories, with people saying the contest was rigged in Derrick Jones Jr’s favor.

In the end, this year’s dunk contest was absolutely fantastic, no matter the score. Fans need to look past the result and think about the actual dunks that we were given. The pure athleticism that was shown made fans feel like they were little kids, fanboying over the impressive skills on the competitors.

We were given a whole bunch of dunks that are unforgettable, and will undoubtedly stay like that forever. Aaron Gordon and Derrick Jones Jr. have cemented their dunk-off into the history books, rivalling those of Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan, and Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon.

No matter the result, this was an event that actually worked and was truly impressive to watch. Although it had its faults, all NBA fans can still admit that this was a remarkable showing to end off the All-Star Saturday night was a massive bang.

Grade: A+