Feb 15, 2020; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Judges from left Dwyane Wade, Common, Candace Parker, Chadwick Boseman and Scottie Pippen watch the slam dunk contest during NBA All-Star Saturday Night at United Center. Quinn Harris-USA TODAY Sports

Scottie Pippen confirms judges messed up Dunk Contest scoring

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated 2/28/20

That story about how the judges conspired to end the Dunk Contest in a tie gained more credibility on Friday when a second judge confirmed it.

Scottie Pippen confirmed that the judges were aiming to create a tie between Derrick Jones Jr. and Aaron Gordon, but blamed the “machines” for locking them out and preventing them from changing the scores.

"We punched the scores in and they came up wrong … We thought we were going to give them both a tie."

—Scottie Pippen on scoring Aaron Gordon and Derrick Jones Jr.'s dunks pic.twitter.com/Cr1UVLeHNL

— ESPN (@espn) February 28, 2020

This confirms Common’s version of events. Pippen was one of the judges who gave Gordon a 9, but based on the initial reaction, Dwyane Wade seemed to be blamed by his colleagues for being the one who screwed up, though he defended himself later.

This seems to be the accepted story now. It’s unlikely to make Gordon, who was robbed, feel any better.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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