Glenn Robinson III takes the 2017 Slam Dunk contest title

NEW ORLEANS — The oohs and aahs in the Smoothie King Center said it all.

Glenn Robinson III, thanks to a perfect score dunk in the final round of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, was the winner.

The Indiana Pacers shooting guard ran from the right and soared up and over his teammate, Paul George, grabbing the ball on the way and floating long enough to clear the Pacers mascot and a dancer too. His reverse slam, with his head grazing the rim along the way, was enough to win the event that, while entertaining, was nowhere near electric as last year’s legendary affair.

And to think, Robinson is really a novice at this whole dunk thing.

"It's crazy. Like I said, I couldn't dunk until my sophomore year in high school, and now not even a decade later, I won an NBA dunk contest," he said. "Going into this, I hadn't really practiced any trick dunks. I hadn't really got time. I focused on playing. I focused on starting and playing to the best of my ability. When they gave me this chance, it took me a week to come up with some things that nobody's ever seen in the NBA dunk contest. It was tough."

Robinson III beat the Phoenix Suns’ Derrick Jones Jr. in the final round, while also taking out the Los Angeles Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan and the Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon along the way.

"That's what I thought it was going to be all along. I thought I was going to have togo up against Derrick in the finals," Robinson said. "I've seen the things that he can do. That guy can jump. Sometimes this competition is tough. It's tough to stay loose, things like that. But, man, when your adrenaline is going, there's no other feeling."

Jones Jr. did more than enough to raise his infamously low profile, as the undrafted small forward out of UNLV has played a total of 24 NBA minutes in seven games during his rookie season.

Still, his bounce was as good as advertised. He earned a ‘50’ of his own in the final round before the winning dunk from Robinson III, taking a bounce lob from a man below the free throw line and finishing a between-the-legs, scissor-kick dunk.

Gordon’s return to the dunk contest was anticlimactic, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

After his fight-to-the-finish with Minnesota’s Zach Lavine, Gordon had the most creative attempt of the evening: an assist from a flying drone, with Superman music booming in the background. Alas, he missed on all three attempts, with long breaks in between as the ball was placed back in the machine.