The NBA dunk contest once again had plenty of issues, but Obi Toppin walked out of Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse a winner on Saturday night.
Toppin won the lengthy and rather disappointing event to wrap up All-Star weekend’s Saturday festivities after the Skills Challenge and 3-point contest.
He got past Juan Toscano-Anderson after throwing down a pair of dunks off the glass in the final round.
Toscano-Anderson, who was the first player of Mexican-descent to compete in the event, took second with 69. He failed to throw down a second dunk in the final round, which led to an easy win for Toppin.
The league provided an incredible panel to judge the competition, as Dominique Wilkins, Isaiah Thomas, Clyde Drexler, David Robinson and Julius Erving all sat on the floor to run the show. That, though, didn’t help much.
Cole Anthony tried to get the show going right away, and brought out his dad, Greg, with a pair of Timberlands for him to wear — though they took forever for him to actually lace up. While wearing his father’s old New York Knicks jersey, Anthony then missed the first two dunks before finally throwing down the third, which gave him an opening score of 40.
Anthony missed his second round and was wiped out of the competition.
The rest of the first round wasn’t much better, though Toscano-Anderson threw down a windmill over teammate Andrew Wiggins on his first attempt.
Toscano-Anderson then secured his spot in the final after a quick second run.
Toppin, after barreling into media members and photographers on his first miss, threw down a behind-the-back windmill to get his round started. He then followed it up with an incredible off-the-glass slam to earn his place in the finals.
Jalen Green brought out a prop to end the first round, and wore a phone on a necklace showing his own game highlights. Green, though, quickly took it off and then struggled to throw one down for what felt like forever and failed to reach the final.
Toppin’s dunks were incredibly impressive. TNT analyst Dwyane Wade, however, seemed to describe the contest perfectly at the end of the night.
