In need of some magic, he reached deep down into his repertoire and found just enough left for one more go.
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“We were looking for our bag of tricks”, LaVine said. The fans want a little more creativity then just showing off your ability to dunk from around the free throw line.
As LaVine made the dunk that won him the contest, his teammates on the Timberwolves couldn’t contain themselves and bolted onto the court. Not in practice. Not at that playgrounds back home in Seattle.
LaVine’s last dunk was an impromptu decision based on a suggestion from fellow contestant Will Barton.
TORONTO (AP) – Aaron Gordon soared over his mascot, but nobody flies higher than Zach LaVine in the slam dunk contest.
LaVine said they should share the trophy “because he did stuff I’ve never seen before”. Like half the dunks we did were like professional dunker dunks, and it takes them four or five times to try it and make it, and we did it on the first try. “It was ridiculous, man”.
“We were kind of mind-boggled a couple times because we got 49s and they were 50s”, LaVine said. Maybe he’s the only one, but people making memes decided Gordon got robbed, and that’s that. “Just try to keep getting better and better and keep accomplishing things that are instilled in me and my goals”. He… did some insane, ridiculous dunks. Or Gordon using the Orlando Magic mascot for consecutive dunks, going between the legs and behind the back, leading everybody to think the night was over. He also grabbed the ball out of a spinning Stuff’s hand and threw down a huge 360 to open the final round.
The All-Star Game tips off Sunday night, when the crowd might still be buzzing over the performances LaVine and Gordon put on to cap off All-Star Saturday.
On A Podcast To Be Named Later, we discuss all of Saturday night starting off with the skills competition.
The contest went to a dunk off. Both finalists again scored 50’s and it went to a second dunk off. Gordon channeled Wilkins for his final dunk, going baseline with a double pump reverse, but that only drew a score of 47. And, from here on, LaVine’s and Gordon’s are the short list as well.
“You could see as my facial expressions when Zach dunks it, it’s like okay, that’s a 50”, Gordon said. LaVine answered with a between-the-legs backwards two-handed dunk for the sixth 50. “I’ve never been on a team with someone who shoots it better than me, so it’s a privilege to work with him every day”.
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Be it a veteran’s last ride or a young player ready to put on a show, plenty of interesting factors will come into play in the 65th NBA All-Star weekend.
