{"id":603851,"date":"2026-02-15T03:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T03:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/603851\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T03:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T03:00:18","slug":"orlando-magics-jase-richardson-falls-short-in-dunk-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/603851\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic’s Jase Richardson falls short in dunk contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magic<\/a> rookie Jase Richardson<\/a> fell short of accomplishing his goal of winning the Slam Dunk Contest<\/a> at NBA All-Star Weekend<\/a> on Saturday night, but the 20-year-old guard has no regrets participating in the highlight event.<\/p>\n

Richardson, who competed against fellow dunk contest first-timers Carter Bryant (Spurs), Jaxson Hayes (Lakers) and Keshad Johnson (Heat), was unable to advance out of the event\u2019s first round at Inuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., outside of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to come out here, have a good time \u2014 I did,\u201d Richardson said after the competition. \u201cThat\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson\u2019s first dunk featured a toss of the ball that turned into a self alley-oop and led to a two-handed reverse slam that received a score of 45.5 from the judges.<\/p>\n

It was during his second dunk when things took a turn for the worse.<\/p>\n

Richardson attempted to catch a ball thrown off the side the backboard and finish it off with a 360-degree dunk, but instead, he took a hard fall, hitting his head on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m good,\u201d he said when asked how he felt after the fall. \u201cI tried to go do a little 360 off the side of the glass, (but) my arm got caught on the side of the backboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jase<\/p>\n

Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News\/SCNG<\/p>\n

Magic rookie Jase Richardson falls during his second dunk attempt during the Slam Dunk Contest at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. on Saturday. (Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

His backup dunk \u2014 a regular 360-degree slam that included no pass \u2014 earned a score of 43.4, which brought his first-round total to 88.8, according to the judges. That mark wasn\u2019t enough to finish in the top two of the first round.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter taking a fall like that, I just had to move on from that dunk,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cIt is what is.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou win some, you lose some,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

After Richardson and Hayes were eliminated, Johnson outlasted Bryant in the final round to win the event.<\/p>\n

Had Richardson reached the final round, he said he had planned to focus on reverse dunks that included putting the ball between or underneath his legs while in the air.<\/p>\n

But he wasn\u2019t planning on including his father, Jason Richardson<\/a>, who won the event twice with the Warriors (2002 and \u201903).<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I\u2019m trying to steer away from that,\u201d the younger Richardson said when asked if he would have worn his dad\u2019s jersey in the final round. \u201cI just wanted to do the contest and try to make it my own thing instead of everything having to do with my father.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson had only dunked four times in 38 appearances for the Magic throughout his rookie campaign, according to basketball-reference.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even though he didn\u2019t win the event, he still appreciated the opportunity to compete in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my first All-Star Weekend so I\u2019ve really enjoyed my time here,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cThe energy was great.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve always imagined being a part of and I was just blessed to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Magic rookie Jase Richardson fell short of accomplishing his goal of winning the Slam Dunk Contest at NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,165,48,6,47,76,3883,1412,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-603851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-magic","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-magic","14":"tag-orlandomagic","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116072417751168137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}