The date was Feb. 14, 2015. The venue: the Barclays Center.
Many had tried, but — contrary to what Magic Johnson would lead you to believe — no one, with the exception of Vince Carter’s one-year dunk tease in 2000, has had the athletic prowess and creativity to successfully resuscitate the NBA Dunk contest back to its glorious lore of years past.
But on a dreary Saturday night on Valentine’s Day, just a year after another failed attempt to reinvigorate the contest by grouping the dunkers into “teams”, a lanky 6’6″ rookie would win the hearts of the entire NBA universe and capture our undivided attention by putting on an old-fashion, unadulterated dunking exhibition.
There were no cars, no capes, and most importantly, no misses (save for one minor boo-boo on his fourth dunk, but you get the point). Zach LaVine simply went out there — with the entire world watching — and delivered one of the most scintillating displays of athleticism in over decade.
When you have your contemporaries, your opponents, and NBA legends alike — all of whom are in the top percent of their profession — all either standing stunned in amazement, or lying back giving you the stink face, chances are you have done something special.
However, as with any great accomplishment of the social media age, his 2015 Dunk Contest performance was immediately picked apart and unreasonably criticized.
“Oh, how many ways can LaVine do a variation (between-the-legs) of one dunk?”
“Oh, he didn’t have any competition.”
“He still wasn’t as good as Vince!”
Luckily for us dunk-loving nerds — who live vicariously through Zach’s unique sky-walking feats — LaVine has already agreed to enter in, and win, next year’s dunk contest.
The scary thing is the young Minnesota Timberwolf admitted after his personal dunking showcase that he did not even bring out his best dunks.
Now, the 2016 Dunk Contest is still approximately eight months away, but it’s never too early to speculate what the green combo guard will do next year, or imagine what he could do given his mind-numbing jumping abilities.
The following five dunks are realistic mid-air artistries, perfected and performed by professional dunkers that Zach LaVine should whip out come Feb. 13, 2016.
Keep in mind, the Renton, Washington native’s explosiveness is manifested best while jumping off of one foot. As such, most of the dunks on this list derive off of the foundation of a one-foot takeoff.
Next: Off-The-Bounce 360