Grading Dunk Contest dunks: Evans and Budinger get an A

It was not a great contest, and worst of all it felt scripted, like the Kardashian “reality” shows. But I guess that’s where we’ve gotten to with the All-Star Dunk Contest. It’s style over substance. And only a couple dunks really impressed

We’ve graded all 12 dunks from the contest (from A to F, like in school) and have the video of some worth watching. Basically, we suffered through Derrick Williams’ last dunk so you don’t have to. Here are my grades for your winner Jeremy Evans, plus Chase Budinger, Paul George and Williams. Feel free to disagree in the comments.

Evans double ally-oop over Gordon Hayward: Grade A. This was hands down the best dunk of the night (you can see it by following this link). Evans said he only had a couple chances to practice this dunk — at 3 a.m. in a local L.A. Fitness location in Orlando. It has a little gimmick but the double ally-oop is an impressive dunk however you do it.

Budinger over Diddy: A. Sure, the “white men can’t jump” intro was scripted and stiff like Keanu Reeves doing Shakespeare. Still, a little star power, a great ally-oop pass from Diddy (playing the Baron Davis in the sunroof roll —but Diddy’s back is in better shape). Budinger got up high, threw it down hard. Impressive dunk.

Budinger “hocus pocus” blindfolded tribute: B+. Got to love good retro dunks. And unlike when Cederic Ceballos did it the first time 20 years ago, it was pretty clear after his first attempt that Budinger was genuinely blindfolded and could not see.

George over Roy Hibbert/Dahntay Jones: B: The first two attempts he missed because Jones was early with the ally-oop, so George took the ball himself. When he did he threw the rock down hard, and he got over 7’2” Hibbert. Not bad.

George black-light 360 windmill: B. At least he tried something different, even if George looked like a human glow stick.

Williams 360 off side of backboard from Ricky Rubio. B. We’ve seen something like it before, but still pretty impressive dunk. Not going to win the contest with that, but not going to lose it either.

Williams windmill over motorcycle: B-. Not bad, even though he missed the first two (yes, I count that against him, it was fairly straight forward). Thing is, jumping over a motorcycle really not impressive after Blake Griffin last year.

Jeremy Evans Mailman tribute over Kevin Hart: C. In what way was that like Karl Malone? He should have backed Hart down on the block, spun quick and done a one-hand slam as a Mailman tribute. Also, if someone has jumped over Hibbert earlier, jumping over Hart does not impress.

Paul George Larry Bird sticker dunk: C-. A tribute to Larry Bird, one of the great dunkers of all…. what? Seen the sticker dunk and Dwight Howard put it at the top of the backboard, which is why it was impressive. Plus, George needed a few runs to get this one right.

Evans dunk with camera: D. Meh. Seen the dunk the camera didn’t really enhance anything.

Budinger windmill: D. Not that it’s a bad dunk, but how many times have we seen that?

Williams off backboard: F. He failed a bunch of times at a fancy off the backboard, between the legs dunk and just had to fall back on something Kobe Bryant has done better in games.