We officially are in the midst of the longest dunk contest in NBA history — as if it wasn’t already, after Derrick Jones Jr. and Aaron Gordon went overtime in February.
Questions have lingered about judging at the event, which was won by the Heat’s Jones by the tightest of margins. Orlando’s Gordon and former Heat guard Dwyane Wade, the controversial judge, chatted on Wade’s Instagram Live show about how Wade’s vote helped his former Heat teammate come out on top on All-Star Saturday.
“It was unfortunate that a Miami Heat guy was in there,” Wade acknowledged on his weekly webcast, The Wine Down, “because it makes it look real (messed) up.”
Wade gave Gordon a nine on his final attempted at Chicago’s United Center, which gave the overtime victory to Jones.
But as he previously stated, Wade thought his scoring would continue the event as a tie.
“I was like, ‘Oh, s — .’” Wade said of when the scoring was flashed to the panel of judges, “And we all was like, ‘Oh s — -.’ “
Gordon, who was genial during the Instagram session with Wade, still wasn’t buying, with the Orlando Magic forward following up Wade’s scoring comment with, “But there was only like a couple of other people that think D-Jones should have won, though. It’s you and D-Jones.”
That led to a hearty laugh from Wade.
Gordon attempted to trump Jones’ soaring efforts by dunking over 7-foot-5 Boston Celtics center Tacko Fall, clipping the Senegalese big man on his final attempt.
Wade said that had him reflecting on a previous score issued to Jones, when Jones earlier in the competition attempted to dunk over Heat teammate Bam Adebayo.
“First of all,” Wade said, “I got booed at times throughout that dunk contest. Because as a former athlete, I’m a little (tough) on certain dunks.
“And I gave D-Jones a nine, and the only reason I gave D-Jones a nine is ‘cause I was like, ‘Listen, if you’re going to attempt that dunk, you have to clear it.’ And he touched Bam, right? He touched his shoulder. It was hell of a dunk. Everybody else gave him 10s. I was the only one who gave him a nine. It was because of it. So to let you know, from my standpoint, on how I looked at the dunk contest.”
Wade said he took the same approach during Tacko time.
“It really was about, if you attempt this dunk, which was almost an impossible dunk to do, you have to clear him,” said Wade, who retired at the end of the 2018-19 season. “So once you didn’t clear him, I was like, ‘Well, I’ve got to give him a nine.’ “
Just as the plan was then, Wade said he still believes a tie would be the most equitable outcome.
“Listen,” Wade said, “let me tell you something: I’m not thinking he should have won or you should have won. I feel like for me, I thought it was a wash.”
Wade, in fact, said it if was aggregate scoring throughout the competition, instead of round by round, there would have been no need for Gordon to release his recent diss track.
“Because if it was total score,” Wade said in the split-screen video, “you would have won. But they didn’t total it up. It went by the rounds of the dunks. The last dunk, three judges felt that you did a nine out of 10. We didn’t feel you lost the dunk contest overall, it was about the dunk, more so than the dunk contest.”
So diss track it was.
“I just had to like vent for people, to give them the perspective of it is what it is,” Gordon told Wade. “You a legend, dog. And you already know that. You a legend.
“One of the lines was, ‘I used to hoop in your Converse so comfortably.’ You had the line of Converse. I used to play in those. I’d never take real shots at a legend.”
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