Full disclosure: I’m a fully-grown man, I stand at 6’2” and I can only dunk a tennis ball. And that’s on a good day.
So during my many futile years as a basketball ‘big man’, I have come to learn that most teenage basketball players are happy just to get above the rim.
Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Zach LaVine is the exception here.
The 19-year-old LaVine came up with some high-flying fireworks on Saturday to win the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, part of the league’s All-Star weekend festivities.
Scroll down to see video footage of LaVine’s dunking performance
LaVine scored a perfect 100 in the opening round in which he wowed the crowd at the Brooklyn Nets’ Barclays Center arena with a through-the-legs, one-handed reverse dunk. He followed up with a behind-the-back slam off a ball he tossed up himself.
In the championship round, he defeated the Orlando Magic’s Victor Oladipo with two more between-the-legs slams that earned 94 points.
Teammate Andrew Wiggins assisted – holding the ball out for LaVine on the first effort from the right baseline and passing off the basket stanchion on the second.
LaVine became the second-youngest winner of the competition. Kobe Bryant, a player LaVine emulated his game after as a child, won it in 1997 at the age of 18.
LaVine topped Oladipo in a landslide after Oladipo failed to complete his own between-the-legs dunk over teammate Elfrid Payton on his first try of the final round.
Oladipo had brought fans to their feet in the first round with a flying 360-degree spin on the way to a two-handed reverse finish.
He and LaVine advanced to the final round as Brooklyn’s Mason Plumlee and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo were eliminated in the first round.
The dunk contest was just one of the events on the NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night. The actual All-Star Game will be held across town at the New York Knicks’ Madison Square Garden arena in Manhattan on Sunday.
Stephen Curry defeated Golden State Warriors teammate Klay Thompson and Cleveland's Kyrie Irving in the final round of the Three-Point Contest with a record score of 27.
Curry hit 13 shots in a row at one point in the final round while Craig Hodges and Jason Kapono held the previous record of 25.
Curry, a rising star in his own right, may have some competition next year when he takes another All-Star aim from beyond the perimeter.
LaVine, who was selected by the Timberwolves with the 13th overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, is also considered a pure shooter, who spent countless hours shooting jumpers in his backyard growing up.
He can shoot. He can clearly dunk. And he is only 19?
The Timberwolves drafted him more for his long-term potential than for immediate returns. But LaVine is proving his upside is downright scary.
agray@thenational.ae
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