Zach LaVine Dedicated His Dunk Contest Trophy to Late Coach Flip Saunders

And yes, this was better than the revered duel between Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins in 1988 because LaVine and Gordon produced better dunks.

By testing their limits and pushing each other, drawing flawless score after ideal score from the judges, LaVine and Gordon took the dunk contest to unprecedented heights.

The All-Star Game tips off Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. EST. Guard Stephen Curry had 26 points, six assists and five rebounds and forward Kevin Durant scored 23 points for the West. In terms of creativity, Gordon took that one in style.

Replay videos of Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon during the NBA-All Star Saturday night are now getting viral in the social media, especially in Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

In the end, Lavine marginally outscored Gordon 200-197 according to a controversial scoring system that requires Shaquille O’Neal to make relatively quick decisions using numbers as large as ten, but the National Basketball Association and it’s fans were all winners as the event was considered a big success. They just couldn’t in all good conscience hand over the trophy based on the strength of a dunk that used a prop that so blatantly does not do the thing it’s name suggests it does. “I was really proud of the fact that they were willing to put themselves out there in that way”.

Thomas went on to compete in the finals of the Skills Challenge, but lost to Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

LaVine wrote “I dedicate this dunk contest and the trophy to my late coach, Flip Saunders and the Saunders family”.

“Everybody’s probably going to say something about Mike and all them and Dr. J”, LaVine said, referring to Julius Erving.

It was curious to me, while watching from the comforts of my living room, the incredible display of athleticism, that Zach Lavine never started in his one year at UCLA. Gordon jumped over Magic mascot Stuff, who was standing on a hoverboard, for three of his dunks, including one in which he grabbed the ball and passed it underneath both legs before throwing it down. LaVine became the first repeat dunk champion since Nate Robinson, but Curry wasn’t even the best on his own team after setting a final-round record a year ago.