Zach LaVine’s dunking prowess is no secret, not after he claimed the NBA dunk contest championship as a Minnesota Timberwolves rookie during last year’s NBA All-Star weekend.
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LaVine decided matters with a flying between-the-legs one-handed dunk with a takeoff just inside the free-throw line.
He became the fourth player to win back-to-back dunk titles, after Michael Jordan (1987-88), Jason Richardson (2002-03) and Nate Robinson (2009-10). “(The Dunk Contest) definitely has to be (back), I don’t know if people can top that though”.
After moving beyond the early rounds of the contest, Lavine and Gordon would go back and forth, throwing down dunk after dunk, earning flawless score after ideal score.
Toronto hosted the very first National Basketball Association game on November 1, 1946. “I’m not going anywhere”. Good idea, B! It capped off a night on which LaVine basically did every fantastic dunk you’ve seen but from the free throw line – the club sauce of dunks.
If Gordon couldn’t upstage LaVine, then LaVine had to do it himself.
LaVine of the Minnesota Timberwolves edged the Orlando Magic’s Gordon in a contest that needed two extra dunks to determine a victor.
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.
But Westbrook scored 31 points in his second straight All-Star MVP performance and Curry added 26 – the final three on a 42-footer.
In fact, it took the judges upping their own standards and (arguably) judging Gordon pretty harshly on this unreal double-pump effort to grab some separation between the two… Either this year’s dunkers are trash as they memorialize their elders, or this year’s guys are way better than anything that’s come before.
Who says the NBA Slam Dunk contest had outlived it’s time, faded into obscurity or was meaningless??
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“I’m so proud of our players because while there is an opportunity to showcase the greatest of their abilities, there is also the opportunity to embarrass themselves as well”, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “It was insane. I think he should have won for sure”. LaVine’s dunks are great not precisely for their degree of difficulty (although who else could do this?) but because of some faintly graspable perfection in them. After breezing through the first round, Thompson, Devon Booker and defending champion Curry met in the final round.
