- Minnesota Timberwolves Guard Zach LaVine wins his second consecutive NBA Slam Dunk Contest
- LaVine out dueled Orlando Magic Forward Aaron Gordon for the Slam Dunk trophy
- LaVine and Gordon needed two rounds of tie-breakers to determine the winner
- This year’s slam dunk contest may go down in basketball history as the best ever
TORONTO, CANADA – Zach LaVine of the Minnesota Timberwolves grabbed his second consecutive Slam Dunk Championship; surviving an epic showdown with Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon.
This year’s Slam Dunk contest may probably go down in basketball history as one of the most exciting and most competitive contest ever; up there with Vince Carter’s Slam Dunk contest win in 2000, and Michael Jordan going against Dominique Wilkins in 1988.
Gordon pushed LaVine to the limits; matching the reigning Slam Dunk Champ almost dunk for dunk. The two high flying athletes exchanged six perfect scores of 50 before the judges gave Gordon 47 points on his last dunk, a behind the head, double pump, two-handed slam.
Afterwards, LaVine finally out-gunned Gordon by pulling off a between-the-legs dunk from the free throw line on the second tiebreaker round to take home his second straight dunk contest trophy.
According to an article on ESPN, the 20-year-old Guard is just the fourth player, after Michael Jordan, Jason Richardson and Nate Robinson, to achieve that historic feat.
LaVine said he has never tried his final and winning dunk before. He said Denver Nuggets Guard Will Barton suggested it to him and that he just went on and tried it.
So there he went, taking off from 15 feet away for the third time Saturday, bringing the ball up with his right hand, switching it to his left, going through his legs and finishing like he had done it thousands of times before.
“I just tried it,” LaVine said.
“We were looking in our bag of tricks,” LaVine admitted. “Ain’t nothing left. I just found a little piece of dust.”
In a story by James Herbert of CBS Sports, Gordon said that he had dreamed all his life of being in the dunk contest and he felt the nerves out there, even if he did not show it.
“I’m going to have to watch it again,” he said. “When I’m out there you feel a little bit of nerves just because all your friends at home are watching, you know the crowd is hyped. You’ve got an incredible panel of judges that you looked up to, like Magic Johnson was my childhood hero and he was judging me. So I definitely appreciate the moment and the best way that I can appreciate that moment is taking it all in and being extremely present.”
Watch the highlights of the incredible Slam Dunk Battle below:
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