Dennis Smith Jr came up short in Saturday night’s Slam Dunk Contest, and he had a few choice words for the judges’ scores afterwards.
The Dallas Mavericks rookie failed to advance to the championship round in the competition and took to social media roughly an hour after it ended. In a tweet, Smith pointed to the fact that a double-pump dunk of his barely got a better score than a literal non-dunk by fellow participant Victor Oladipo.
@Dennis1SmithJr Double pump= 39@VicOladipo No dunk= 31
What that look like?
— Dennis Smith Jr. (@Dennis1SmithJr) February 18, 2018
For what it’s worth, Aaron Gordon scored a 47 for a similar double-pump dunk two years ago. But Smith did need a second attempt to convert his, having missed a 360 windmill attempt on his first try of the round.
All that aside, the judging did come across as a bit questionable this year — the non-basketball figures (DJ Khaled, Mark Wahlberg, and Chris Rock) somehow outnumbered the actual basketball figures (Lisa Leslie and Julius Erving) on the judges’ table. But perhaps Smith can get some solace from the perfect 50 he scored for a between-the-legs 360 on his second go-around (a score he achieved without having to resort to theatrics like his opponents).
