Zach LaVine of the Minnesota Timberwolves overcame Aaron Gordon of the Orlando Magic to repeat as the NBA Slam Dunk champion on Saturday after both impressed with gravity-defying displays of athleticism and imagination.
Advertisement
“I didn’t really know that was one of his special dunks”, Gordon said. It featured six ideal scores (of 50) in a row, a first in the history of the NBA Slam Dunk competition, and an overtime of sorts when LaVIne and Gordon were knotted at 100 at the end of the two dunk final.
Gordon pushed LaVine to two final-round tiebreakers, but LaVine scored a 50 to Gordon’s 47 on their final attempts.
LaVine finally won after extra dunks were needed, joining Jordan, Jason Richardson and Nate Robinson as the only back-to-back winners of the dunk title.
NBA All-Star festivities have kept Toronto as the worldwide hot spot, despite extreme cold temperatures, with all eyes around the world on the city this weekend. Good idea, B! It capped off a night on which LaVine basically did every wonderful dunk you’ve seen but from the free throw line – the club sauce of dunks. It’s an iconic to throw-down that pays homage to great dunkers of the past like Julius Erving and Michael Jordan.
However, LaVine closed things out with a between-the-legs dunk from the free throw line, which clinched his second consecutive slam dunk contest victory.
Fortunately, LaVine didn’t do just that, thanks to Aaron Gordon of the Orlando Magic. Gordon brought the ball down by his knees and grabbed his head with his other hand, throwing down a thunderous dunk and getting a “50” in the process. Coming off of his turn as MVP of the Rising Stars Challenge last night, LaVine was on a roll.
Minnesota Timberwolves rookie center Karl-Anthony Towns won the Skills Challenge, beating 5-foot-9 Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas in the final round.
Gordon’s final round saw him tweak the one from the previous round.
Advertisement
Earlier in the 3-point contest, Curry wasn’t even the best on his own team after setting a final-round record a year ago. He started to walk away after making first four – then turned and made that one, anyway. So I think this was much bigger than myself, but it shows that bigs are translating into a new facet of their games..
