CHICAGO – Aaron Gordon lost another epic dunk contest, and it was by only a couple of inches.
Namely, the top of Tacko Fall’s head.
Derrick Jones Jr. finally got his long-awaited dunk contest title as an exclamation point to a scintillating NBA All-Star Saturday Night, both for him and the Miami Heat. He and Gordon needed a dunk-off to decide a winner, with Jones prevailing 48-47 in the one that determined who left with the trophy.
Bam Adebayo took the skills title to give the Heat another champ, and the Sacramento Kings’ Buddy Hield won the 3-point crown. Those two wins were absolute, without ambiguity: The ball going in told the tale.
The dunk contest – much like the one between the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan and the Atlanta Hawks’ Dominique Wilkins 32 years earlier in this same Windy City – came down to the judges’ call.