Wade was once a very explosive dunker, and says he couldn’t even imagine how LaVine and Gordon came up with some of the dunks they executed on Saturday night. Gordon jumped over Magic mascot Stuff, who was standing on a hoverboard, for three of his dunks, including one in which he grabbed the ball and passed it underneath both legs before throwing it down.
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The favorite to win this year’s NBA Rookie of the Year award celebrated his first appearance at the NBA All-Star weekend by taking home some hardware.
In true Drake fashion, Zach LaVine went back-to-back, winning the Slam Dunk Contest for the second year in a row.
LaVine answered with a classic windmill dunk that also received maximum points.
LaVine and Gordon reached the final and each responded with three consecutive dunks that were scored 50s by the Hall of Fame panel of judges. In my opinion, that is the greatest dunk I have ever seen in a dunk contest.
Minnesota Timberwolves’ Zach LaVine slam dunks the ball during the National Basketball Association all-star skills competition in Toronto on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016.
But as far as dunks go, I thought the tomahawk to clutch to reverse dunk was his best.
Through its history, the contest has produced some spectacular jams.
Like I said, this is why Gordon needs the Slam Dunk Contest more than Lavine. Without the 5-foot-7 Webb, perhaps there aren’t guys like Jason Richardson and Nate Robinson in future dunk contests. He ended up playing 26 minutes, which was the second-most on the Western Conference All-Stars, but his numbers were just never good enough to put him in contention for MVP conversation.
If you want to hate the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest then this blog isn’t for you.
Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson won the 3-point shooting contest and Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns beat won the skills contest. “I’m not going to have 12 more of these, so I’m going to make sure that this moment is something they remember was special if they get one of the sneakers”. That’s what the dunk contest is supposed to be about.
By the end of the night, many were calling for co-champions in an event that was reminiscent of the Michael Jordan-Dominique Wilkins dunk contest back in 1988.
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“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.
