Milwaukee Bucks: Grading Pat Connaughton’s Dunk Contest showing

First dunk

Having dropped plenty of hints on social media in recent days, they all came together on Connaughton’s first dunk attempt on Saturday night.

Milwaukee Brewers talisman and 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich made the trip to Chicago to help out the Bucks’ own baseball star, and he took to the court suitably dressed in a throwback Kareem Abdul-Jabbar jersey.

As for Connaughton’s attire, the 27-year-old paid homage to Billy Hoyle from White Men Can’t Jump, while importantly also wearing a t-shirt emblazened with a photo of the whole Bucks squad from Eric Bledsoe‘s recent birthday celebrations.

In other words, Connaughton had assembled a fun and varied collection of props, had brought out another star athlete to add to the spectacle, and then the attention turned to the dunk itself.

In an appearance on ESPN’s The Jump earlier in the week, Connaughton had been warned by Scottie Pippen, a judge on the night, to avoid falling into the trap of spectacle at the cost of failing to pull off his opening dunk on the first attempt.

Clearly taking that advice on board, Connaughton cleared the 6’3″ frame of Yelich on the first try, cleanly picked the ball from behind the former MVP’s head, before he delivered an emphatic finish to the dunk.

Chadwick Boseman offered up a perfect 10 for Connaughton’s attempt, Pippen largely held true to his own advice by dishing out a 9, along with Common and Candace Parker, but it was a bizarre 8 from Dwyane Wade that ultimately put paid to Pat’s hopes by the time the next round wrapped up.

Considering cleanly executing the first dunk was an issue for two of the other three contestants on the night, and that Connaughton brought an element of flash to his routine, this dunk deserved a little bit more relative to the scores dished out for the other early dunks.

BTBP grade: A-