The NBA All-Star Weekend is a spectacle of athletic prowess and entertainment, but one moment stood out for all the wrong reasons. The Los Angeles Lakers' Jaxson Hayes found himself at the center of a social media storm after delivering what many deemed the worst dunk in the history of the NBA Dunk Contest. But here's where it gets controversial... Hayes, who was suspended for one game earlier this month for pushing the Washington Wizards mascot, received the lowest score of the first round with an average of 44.6 from the five judges for a one-handed effort that resembled a pre-game warm-up. The seven-footer then took several attempts to complete a more creative second dunk - throwing the ball to himself, catching it off the bounce, taking it between the legs and then dunking. The improvement in score was not significant, however, with a 47.2. And it was also not enough to stop Hayes being savaged online for his first dunk that will go down in NBA All-Star Weekend infamy. Meanwhile, Damian Lillard, out all season while recovering from a torn left Achilles tendon, matched a record by winning his third career NBA Three-Point Contest on Saturday. Having received special approval from the league to participate, the 35-year-old Portland Trail Blazers guard beat Phoenix’s Devin Booker 29-27 in the final. Lillard was injured in last year’s playoffs while with Milwaukee, then waived by the Bucks and signed by the Trail Blazers, for whom he played in his first 11 NBA campaigns. Lillard shot last in the opening round, where eight players sought one of three spots in the final. Charlotte rookie Kon Knueppel shot first and reached the final with 27, 2018 Three-Point winner Booker, the penultimate shooter, fired 30 and Lillard fired 27 -- hitting five in a row on the left wing -- to advance over Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, who had 24. In the final, Knueppel opened with 17 points, Lillard sank his final shot from the baseline to finish on 27 and Booker missed his last three from the baseline, any of which would have tied Lillard. In the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, Miami’s Keshad Johnson won the title with 97.4 points after a windmill dunk in the final round. San Antonio rookie forward Carter Bryant delivered a ball between the legs, one-handed slam for a perfect 50 points in his first finals dunk. But Bryant repeatedly missed his final dunk, a between the legs and off the backboard reverse slam. Not even advice from retired NBA dunk legend Vince Carter could help and after a final miss rimmed out, Bryant made a 360-degree dunk before time ran out but scored only 43 points and couldn’t overtake Johnson. In other NBA All-Star Saturday festivities, the Shooting Stars competition went to Team Knicks, consisting of New York’s Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns and former Knicks star Allan Houston.
