First things first: Lavine is 19, albeit in a youth-oriented Sprite Slam Dunk battle, where he’s facing fellow baby faces Giannis Antetokounmpo,, 20, and Victor Oladipo, 22. But what he might lack in NBA-dunk experience he made up for in pure athleticism.
Lavine easily won the NBA Sprite Slam Dunk event during Saturday night’s all-star festivities. How? He finally shuttled us back to those days of Vince Carter owning that hardwood, when that Raptors star mouthed to the camera, “It’s over!” after his between the leg dunk.
Let’s go through each dunk by Lavine, breaking down how he made NBA fan drop their jaws and pray someone YouTubed that quick.
In the first round, Lavine didn’t waste any times, especially since he had to follow Oladipo’s 10-worthy reverse-360. He came out with a Michael Jordan jersey, and reportedly called this dunk The Space Jam. So Lavine took a breath, stepped onto the court in his first ever slam dunk contest, and bounced the ball. It didn’t go as high as he liked, so he tried again, and then this dunk-mastery occurred:
He slammed it from between his legs off a bounce! Not too shabby for his first dunk, and the crowd went wild like Kobe was scoring a game-winner, and the announcers couldn’t help but yelp in unbridled glee. Lavine just woke us up again. Wait, a slam dunk contest can actually be interesting? With athletically graceful and powerful dunks? No need to jump over Kia cars?
With Mason Plumlee and the Greek Freak coming up short in the first round, everyone knew this was going to be an Oladipo and Lavine head-to-head. Moving onto the second round, the building knew something special was going to happen. And Lavine followed through. It was a thing of beauty.
Once again, Lavine showed his hops by taking another bounced ball into a dunk no one has seen before. He cradled the ball in the air behind his back, then dunked hard with his right, his head almost touching the rim. And it was is first try, too, no jitters this time.
Deservedly so, Lavine scored a perfect score. And he wasn’t done yet.
With an assist from fellow teammate Andrew Wiggins, a Toronto-born rookie, Lavine took the ball from Wiggins’ outstretched hand and – again – slid the ball between his legs to then dunk with his left hand. His off-hand, in fact.
This kid just doesn’t stop! He has the vertical, the leaping ability, and the finishing power to take on some of the best dunkers in the game, such as Kobe or Carter or Dwight Howard.
When Oladipo came up short, Lavine’s trophy ceremony was likely ignored by droves of NBA fans who quickly scurried to YouTube to re-watch those mind-melting Lavine dunks. And for good reason. Lavine proved you don’t need to rely on props or great entrance music to win an arbitrary yet delightful ribbon on the All-Star weekend bow. What you need to do is prove how dunking in the NBA can be a work of art, a blend of ballet and aerobics and sport.
Lavine got me excited to be an NBA fan again during All-Star Weekend. I usually see this weekend as just a glossed-up talent show rarely devoid of any real sparkle.
But this year, all I needed was a rookie who had something to prove. Who wanted to show the old heads in the audience, the Kevin Durants and John Walls, how the kids are taking over, one dunk contest at a time.
