‘You have to clear him’: D-Wade explains to Aaron Gordon what happened in Dunk Contest
The — perhaps one-sided — Slam Dunk Contest beef between Aaron Gordon and Dwyane Wade took on new life Monday when Gordon released “9 Out of 10,” a rap song calling out Wade for the nine he handed out to Gordon as a judge in the final round of the Dunk Contest in February. The controversial scoring handed victory to Derrick Jones Jr., sparking conspiracy theories Wade made the decision to help the Miami Heat and his former teammate.
On Friday, Wade invited Gordon on to the “Wine Down,” the weekly Instagram Live show he has been hosting amid the COVID-19 pandemic, to talk out the controversy and the ensuing dis track.
“You heard what Rev. [Jesse] Jackson said?” Gordon asked Wade. “He said, ‘That’s some bulls***.”
The two talked for about 30 minutes and spent about 10 of those minutes talking about what went down at NBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago. They both shared their side of the story and Gordon explained why he decided to call out Wade with a rap song.
First, Wade gave his reasoning for why he awarded Gordon a nine after the Orlando Magic forward jumped over Boston Celtics center Tacko Fall for his final dunk. His reasoning was simple and sound: Even though he finished a dunk over the 7-foot-5 rookie, Gordon didn’t clear him cleanly. Earlier in the contest, Wade gave Jones a nine for a similar dunk when Jones jumped over Bam Adebayo, but not cleanly.
“It’s unfortunate that a Miami Heat guy was in there because it makes it look real f***ed up,” Wade said, “but it really was about if you attempt this dunk, which is almost an impossible dunk to do, you have to clear him, so once you didn’t clear him I was like, Well, I’ve got to give him a nine.”
In the days after the controversial finish, Hall of Fame small forward Scottie Pippen, one of the contest’s other judges, went on ESPN’s “The Jump” and said the judges planned to force a tie between Jones and Gordon, but the scoring somehow got messed up. Jones wound up with 48 and Gordon with 47, giving Jones an overtime win. Conspiracy theories swirled suggesting Wade took advantage of the judges plan to hand Jones the victory.
Wade confirmed the plan Pippen mentioned was true, but he deflected blame for the scoring mishap.
“He had a 48, so as judges we had a sidebar like, Yo, no matter what happens on this dunk — miss, not a great dunk — let’s make sure that it’s even. Let’s put it on the NBA more so than us because at this point it should be co-champions. Both of these guys deserve a championship,” the legendary shooting guard said. “Once we got to the next one it was all about making sure the score was equal, so once we start going, I didn’t look at anybody else’s. Once we huddled, we’re like, Alright, I’m going to make sure it’s equal. I was like, Alright, I didn’t feel like he cleared, so I’m going to give a nine. I was like, Candace, what are you going to do? She’s like, I’m going to give a 10, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to Scottie and them. I’m thinking like, OK, two judges will give a nine and three judges will give a 10, and that will give us the exact same score and once I seen Scottie put a nine, we all was like, Oh, s***.”
What made Gordon come after Wade rather than Pippen or actor Chadwick Boseman, both of whom also handed out nines?
“The Miami boys. That’s what it comes down to,” said the high-flying forward, who was particularly willing to give Boseman a pass because “he’s like 5-foot-5, 5-foot-4. ... I just give him a pass because he don’t know no better.”
Gordon also alleged pretty much no one agreed with the final result.
“There’s only a couple people that think D-Jones should’ve won, though,” Gordon said. “It’s you and D-Jones.”
Wade started cracking up in disbelief.
“That’s bulls*** right there!” he said.
Wade had a suggestion for Gordon, though: He and Jones should schedule some sort of dunk contest outside the purview of the NBA.
With the coronavirus giving everyone more free time, maybe the two forwards could set up something similar to what Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have done with their independently planned one-on-one golf competitions.
“You know how Tiger and I think Phil did that golf-off where they made a lot of money to play each other?” Wade suggested. “That you think about you and D-Jones doing a dunk-off against each other, just you two?”
Gordon sounded open to the idea.
“Sh**,” he said, “if the cheese is right!”
