CHICAGO – Dwyane Wade is a self-proclaimed Heat lifer.
Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr. won the dunk contest with Wade as a judge.
You do the math.
On his final dunk, Jones got a 48. Then, Aaron Gordon dunked over terrified Tacko Fall… and got a 47.
The voting for Gordon’s last dunk:
- Dwyane Wade: 9
- Common: 10
- Candace Parker: 10
- Chadwick Bozeman: 9
- Scottie Pippen: 9
Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:
Just spoke to dunk contest judge @common who tells @ESPN, “We thought it was going to be tied. We were like, ‘This is a tie’ ...But somebody didn’t do it right. I don’t know who it is.” 👀👀👀
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) February 16, 2020
Dunk contest judge @Candace_Parker —who gave Aaron Gordon a 10—tells ESPN, “I ain’t throwing anyone under the bus .... buttttt check the score card.”
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) February 16, 2020
With Common and Parker giving 10s and casting blame elsewhere, Wade, Bozeman and Pippen became suspects. The evidence points strongly at Wade.
Before the scores were even revealed a smiling Wade removed his earpiece, as if he knew the contest was finished. Notice how Common and Scottie Pippen both look at Wade after seeing the scores:
Wade danced around the controversy, never directly denying that he didn’t vote how he agreed he would:
“I wasn’t the only one who gave him a 9, let’s talk about that!” 😂@DwyaneWade responds to those saying he was biased as a judge in the Dunk Contest. @stance pic.twitter.com/FkBvJ6IWl7
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) February 16, 2020
Gordon’s final dunk was better than Jones’ final dunk. But Jones dunked better throughout the contest. Does that mean Gordon got robbed? At that point, yes. But Jones should have won the contest before then.
The bigger problem is judging dunks on a 6-10 scale. They should be judged relative to each other, and Jones’ were better.
