Count Eastern Conference All-Star guard Dwyane Wade among those still raving about Saturday night’s dunk contest finale between eventual repeat victor Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon.
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This is just the dunk contest, not something people should take too seriously.
LaVine wrote “I dedicate this dunk contest and the trophy to my late coach, Flip Saunders and the Saunders family”. Emmanuel Mudiay competed in the Skill Challenge, but lost his head-to-head match up against the Boston Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas.
LaVine sealed it on the next attempt when he soared into the air from a step inside the free-throw line and made a between-the-legs dunk that earned a ideal score from a panel of judges that included basketball greats Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal.
First, let’s dunk down memory lane. His first dunk where he went between the legs then switched hands and then dunking it on the opposite direction is the best dunk BEFORE Gordon’s awesome use of the Orlando Magic mascot.
So Gordon didn’t realize he was paying homage to Wilkins when he went baseline, brought the ball down between his legs and reversed it home. “It’s a big jigsaw puzzle and we have to figure out over time how we can manage it. I have no doubt that one day we’ll have an All-Star game outside North America”.
Thompson topples Curry in all Warriors battle Klay Thompson of Golden State defeated his teammate and defending champion Stephen Curry to win the 3-point contest.
“In Charlotte, yeah, if they want me to come back, I probably will”, Gordon said.
“I’m glad I was able to help the bigs come out with this trophy”, said Towns, the No. 1 overall pick in the June draft. The 21-year-old became the fourth player to win back-to-back dunk titles, after Michael Jordan, Jason Richardson and Nate Robinson.
“If I knew it was going to be like that, I would have prepared better and we would have been here dunking all night, going back 50 after 50 after 50 after 50”, Gordon said. And Gordon couldn’t cite the ’88 dunk contest, and really has no knowledge of it because, as he painfully reminded those of us who did watch the Jordan-Nique showdown, “I was born in ’95”.
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Karl-Anthony Towns joined Timberwolves team-mate LaVine on the winner’s list as he took out the skills challenge. That’s how good Aaron Gordon was. In all, there were a total of seven flawless scores between the two in the contest with six of them in a row, which has never happened before in the event.
