For years critics have been saying the dunk contest hasn’t been the same since the days of Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Vince Carter but this year it was different when Aaron Gordon went against reigning dunk champion Zach Lavine.
The contest started off with four contestants Aaron Gordon, Zach Lavine, Andre Drummond and Will Barton.
After the first round Gordon and Lavine went on to the final round where the show really started. For his first dunk in the final round Gordon used the assistance of his teams mascot Stuff the Magic Dragon and a Hover board while Stuff was spinning around on the Hover board with holding the ball outward Gordon timed it perfectly and he scooped the ball spun mid air and dunked it with a hand behind his head the crowd went wild.
Lavine would respond with an identical dunk but he did it all on his own by throwing it to himself.
Both dunks would score a perfect 50.
For his second dunk Gordon went deep into his bag of tricks, using Stuff again this time placing the ball on his head. Gordon would jump over Stuff grab the ball and put it through both legs and slam it home, the crowd went wild and couldn’t believe what the just saw, Gordon had just sat on a chair mid air.
Announcers thought it was over right then and there.
Lavine would answer with a behind the backboard slam where he ran the jumped from behind the hoop and slammed it in.
Both dunks scored another 50, which lead to a tie; this meant overtime.
For his first overtime dunk Gordon would use the assistance of his teammate Elfrid Peyton throwing the ball off the side of the goal then Gordon wind milled it in: The judges gave it another 50.
Lavine would respond in a Jordon like way by jumping from the free throw line the slamming it through the basket, the crowd couldn’t contain themselves from what they were seeing. Lavin put together another 50 dunk
The judges wanted to see one more round.
Gordon and Lavine were running out of ideas and were acting off the fly.
With the second overtime dunk would go old school with the fake cock back and bring it down then slam it in the hoop, at first people didn’t realize what they just saw they had to show it in slow motion for people to understand. The judges only gave it a 47.
This meant Lavine had a chance to win, he went back to his inner Jordan and jumped from the free throw line this time putting the ball through his legs. This would score a 50 Lavine would win in a shootout.
While accepting the trophy Lavine admitted Gordon had done things he’s never seen before and thought there should be two trophies.
All in all the entire dunk contest was great I hope it continues to be this competitive in he future.