Mavericks guard Dennis Smith Jr. had arguably the best dunk of the entire contest when he did a reverse between his legs and finished with his off hand. The dunk landed him a score of 50 and won the crowd and viewers over immediately. Unfortunately for Smith, his night was over after that.
A score of 39 from Smith’s first dunk left him without enough points to move to the next round. The dunk that Smith got docked so many points for? An incredible double-pump dunk that is way harder than the judges gave it credit for.
Smith did try a different dunk before this and failed on the attempt. So he theoretically was docked points, but this felt extreme. Even more so when considering that Victor Oladipo didn’t get a dunk off on his first attempt and finished with a 31. After the event, Smith vented his frustration on Twitter.
And he’s right to be upset. The double-pump dunk is incredibly under appreciated. That lack of appreciation robbed Aaron Gordon of a chance to continue his dunk off with Zach Lavine in 2016 and it robbed Smith of a proper score in this contest. Even with the failed attempt on the first try, the deduction the judges gave him was far too harsh.
Hopefully this will give him the fire to attempt the dunk contest again next season and avenge what he considers to be a robbery. There was a lot of deserved hype for Smith entering this contest and fans were deprived of a chance to see him bring out his best stuff.
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