Glenn Robinson III wins anti-climactic NBA Slam Dunk Contest

Glenn Robinson III won the 2017 Slam Dunk Contest, but everybody was left wanting so much more.

Glenn Robinson III was the underdog of this year’s Slam Dunk Contest. Aaron Gordon was the favorite after last year’s dunk contest, DeAndre Jordan had the big man factor, and Derrick Jones Jr. had highlight reels.

Yet, at the end of it all, Robinson III threw down two of the best dunks of the night. Unfortunately, despite his achievement, most viewers were left wishing for so much more.

The contest started off all right for the most part. DeAndre Jordan was the first dunker of the night and he showed a lot of creativity. With the acronym of his name being “DJ,” he decided his first dunk should be jumping over a DJ table.

Jordan brought out DJ Khaled and dunked over him while Khaled Snapchatted the entire thing. It was a creative start to a night that should have gone up from there.

Robinson III was the first dunker to really get everybody going, by dunking over a person with another person on their shoulders. It had just the right power and flash to set a bar for the rest of the contest.

Unfortunately, there were few times that the bar was ever reached as most dunks couldn’t quite match up to it.

Next up was the favorite upset pick, Derrick Jones Jr. The undrafted rookie straight out of the D-League had some nasty highlight clips, but in a contest setting he had trouble getting the same level of excitement.

His first dunk was okay, but it took two attempts and Robinson III had just jumped over someone before him. Still, jumping over four people ain’t half bad.

The real disappointment of the night was Aaron Gordon. Coming off last year’s incredible contest it seemed like Gordon was going to be the show for everyone to watch this year.

However, he recently injured his foot and has been missing gametime as a result. It was clear from the start that Gordon did not have the height on his jumps necessary to do the dunks he had in mind.

The creativity was there, and had he been healthy it would have been the show everyone hoped for. Sadly, the best we got was this drone dunk that took Gordon a handful of attempts to complete. He didn’t even complete his second dunk.

Thankfully, Jones Jr did have one incredible dunk left to prove his invitation was more than deserved. This was dunk of the night by far.

The power and finesse is one thing, but the height Jones Jr is able to reach as he throws it between his legs feels inhuman. If all his dunks had been like this then he would have ran away with the contest.

Unfortunately for him, Robinson III had one more great dunk to send everybody home at least a little happy.

Great dunk. Plenty of power behind it and it’s easy to forget sometimes that jumping over three people is by no means easy. Robinson deserved his victory tonight and should be very proud of his achievement.

That being said, it’s hard to escape the feeling of wanting more that the entire contest left us with. The dunks themselves were fine, and the players put on a decent show, but it was plagued from imperfect execution. Too many attempts, and a few stinker dunks thrown in made it hard to get as excited as previous contests.

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Oh well. They can’t all be as good as last year’s was.