Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan got snubbed at the Dunk Contest
DeAndre Jordan deserved to at least make the finals.
As promised, DeAndre Jordan finally participated in the Slam Dunk Contest on All-Star Saturday Night since being named an All-Star for this year’s game.
He was robbed.
And the contest wasn’t exactly as entertaining a battle as last year’s was.
DeAndre’s opponents, Derrick Jones Jr., Glenn Robinson III, and the 2016 champ Aaron Gordon, all had problems with execution. Dunks are less exciting when it takes you 3-4 attempts to land them. And it’s blasphemous towards the basketball gods to award someone points for a dunk they couldn’t pull off at all.
Also, between two contestants, 12 people (and a mascot) were used as props to jump over. That got old pretty fast. Impressive? Yes. But it’s the dunk contest and you have to give the people want they want. That includes dunks that haven’t been done yet.
Both of DJ’s dunks, however, were unique from the other contestants. Here are recaps of DeAndre’s amazing, aerodynamic, and innovative dunks.
1) Dunk over a DJ booth (ha…get it?) with help from DJ Khaled
DeAndre was the first to dunk in the competition. A DJ booth along with music producer DJ Khaled were immediately brought out to the court. DJ Khaled stood behind the booth with both arms outstretched: one holding the ball for DeAndre and the other holding his phone for a video selfie on Snapchat.
Besides the fact that DJ jumped over a good sized table standing outside of the restricted area semicircle, the dunk itself was nothing special. Just a standard jump and dunk. The impressive part was the height he grabbed the ball from and brought up to the rim all within half a second. And unlike most of the dunk attempts from the other participants, DJ was successful on the first try.
Overall, it was a solid first dunk with the creativity needed to at least start the contest off on a good note. He was awarded 41/50 points (8-8-8-9-8).
2) 360 between the legs
DJ’s second first round dunk was arguably one of the best of the night. Everyone discredits him because of his height and length, but ignores how hard it is for a player his size to jump in the air, do tricks, and dunk the ball.
Running at an angle left of the goal and jumping at the semicircle, DeAndre Jordan did a clockwise 360 degree spin in the air. If that doesn’t impress you, he also exchanged the basketball from his left hand to to his right hand in between his legs and dunked it. He didn’t seem very impressed with himself after he did it, most likely because the ball hit the rim before the net. It was still amazing nonetheless.
Although he missed on the first try, he landed it on his second attempt (again: unlike most of the other dunks that happened). DJ’s first attempt wasn’t a miss at the rim, but he had complications with getting the ball through his legs successfully while his body is spinning. Which is understandable and extremely forgivable.
Dj received a score of 43/50 (8-8-9-9-9) giving him a total score of 84. It wasn’t enough to advance him to the finals, unfortunately.
Glenn Robinson III was eventually crowned the winner.