A Duke basketball standout was wronged by a panel of judges during the Slam Dunk Contest.
It was a big day for the Duke basketball program as the Blue Devils took center stage at the NBA All-Star festivities, but in the biggest event, the judges did wrong by rookie Cassius Stanley.
The NBA held its Slam Dunk Contest at halftime of the All-Star Game, and the first dunk of the night was performed by Stanley with just a ho-hum between-the-legs dunk where he was eye-level with the rim.
Stanley made the dunk look so easy and was only scored a 44, which sent Twitter ablaze.
https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1368753908374331394?s=20
The Duke basketball community on Twitter certainly didn’t appreciate the low score, nor did other members of the NBA community:
They trippin
— Tre Jones (@Tre3Jones) March 8, 2021
A 44? Come on!!!!
— Nolan Smith (@NdotSmitty) March 8, 2021
44?!?!?!?!?
— Jon Scheyer (@JonScheyer) March 8, 2021
They robbed Cassius
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) March 8, 2021
Best dunk of the night was Cassius Stanley's first.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) March 8, 2021
Cassius Stanley’s second dunk was a typical lob to himself where again he was eye-level with the rim and only was scored 37, although that was not as an egregious scoring error as the first dunk.
The judges for the NBA Slam Dunk Contest were Dominique Wilkins, Spud Webb, Jason Richardson, Dee Brown, and Josh Smith.
Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons and New York Knicks rookie Obi Toppin advanced to the finals where Simons defeated Toppin.
Duke basketball standout makes light of scoring blunder
Following the dunk contest and his first-round elimination, Cassius Stanley wasn’t too upset and made fun of the situation:
“Pretty much everyone around me thought I got a 50. Even someone who I looked up to, Zach LaVine, came out and was like ‘You got a 44 on that?’ I get to be on the list of people who might’ve gotten robbed for a 50, so that’s a cool thing I guess,” Stanley said.
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The former Blue Devil is already thinking about making another run at a Dunk Contest Title and redeeming himself after his first time in the event.
“Yeah, I want to do it again. I’d do it next year,” Stanley said.
Hopefully next year All-Star Weekend will go back to its normal setting and there will be a packed building to see Cassius Stanley try and redeem himself in the Dunk Contest.